Kevin Craig  Vine & Fig Tree  P. O. Box 179  Powersite, MO 65731

About Kevin Craig

• My Journey
• My Destination

• I Support: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, sobriety

• I Oppose: Secularism, Humanism, Anti-Family Sex, Hedonism, Autonomy, Totalitarianism, and Mass Death

My Journey

What I've done, what I've learned.

• "Christian Reconstruction"
• Vine & Fig Tree
• School Teacher
• Legal Education
• "Seminary"
• Social Work
• Hospice

Christian Reconstructionism

Before I graduated from high school, I had come in contact with R.J. Rushdoony [Google], founder of the "Christian Reconstruction" movement, and Chalcedon, its flagship publishing arm in Vallecito, Calif. Soon thereafter, I wanted to be "the next Rushdoony" when I grew up. Some would say neither one has happened yet. I became a "Chalcedon Scholar" and wrote a regular column for The Chalcedon Report. I substituted on occasion for Rev. Rushdoony in the pulpit which he regularly occupied and from which he first delivered the contents of his magnum opus, The Institutes of Biblical Law. I was an overnight guest at his home. David Chilton and I met regularly with Rushdoony for mentoring. The Institute for Christian Economics (Gary North) also published several of my articles. North described this article as "dynamite."

Rushdoony was influential in starting the "scientific creationism" movement, by getting a book called The Genesis Flood published. Becoming a creationist was for me the first of many radicalizing departures from the status quo. My first article published by Chalcedon was on the creationist issue.

One of Rushdoony's protégés was Greg Bahnsen, who wrote the book Theonomy in Christian Ethics (1977). "Theonomy" comes from two Greek words meaning "God's Law." The alternative is man's law (or autonomy).

Rushdoony was scathing in his attacks on civil governments which rejected Theonomy and replaced it with Autonomy.

Rushdoony wrote this:

Christianity: Religion of Peace Islam: Religion of Jihad? R.J. Rushdoony If you were to go through scripture and collect the passages that deal with peace, you would find it surprising how many such passages there are. Very clearly, peace is a central purpose of God's plan for man and the earth. Peace as scripture describes it is first and foremost peace with God. Then when man is at peace with God, there is peace between man and man, and man and nature. Let us now look a little further into the doctrine of peace. Peace is a translation of a Hebrew word, Shalom. We have it in ‘Jerusalem’. Salem. It is the greeting in Hebrew. Instead of saying hello, it is: ‘Shalom’. Peace. Now, peace, shalom, in Hebrew, comes from the root ‘to be whole’ wholeness, soundness, health, well-being, prosperity, peace as opposed to war, concord as opposed to strife. As a result the Biblical doctrine of peace is very closely related to the Biblical doctrine of salvation. This is why throughout the New Testament, as well as in Old Testament prophecy, the culmination of Christ’s work is peace. And Christ even in the midst of trouble and of strife and turmoil, gives us peace. “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Peace, thus, is a present possession in Christ; and it is a future possession as Christ’s reign is extended throughout the world Peace is thus, that order of peace and prosperity, a salvation of health, which flows out of our reconciliation to God in Jesus Christ, and our restoration to life under God. Life in Eden was a life of peace with God, therefore peace with yourself, peace with nature. The source of that peace is the primary relationship with God, and Christ having restored it, all other forms of peace shall flow out of that peace we have with God, in Jesus Christ. Statist peace, on the other hand, is simply an absence of hostility. It means that war has ended. That there has been a suppression, perhaps, of criminal activity. The state cannot regenerate man. It cannot even establish the limited peace it aims at, because the power of the state is essentially the power of the sword. The state cannot order [compel] men to love one another, or to live in peace, and when it tries to do so it only aggravates the situation. The state therefore can never bring about peace. As a matter of fact, the state, when it tries to make peace its goal, only destroys the peace of citizens and usurps God's peace and the free-man’s peace in Christ. The state can only be an instrument of peace when it ... acknowledges that peace can only come when man is redeemed by God in Christ. Thus the doctrine of peace is a very important one in law, because it is first of all important in terms of the doctrine of salvation. The vine and the fig tree imagery are thus essential to scripture. They are God-centered doctrines, God-centered symbols, setting forth the peace, the salvation, the fulfillment of man in prosperity, in joy, and in well-being. In God through Christ. There is no peace, no fulfillment for man in any other way.

Beginning around 1978 I began writing for an organization I envisioned called Vine & Fig Tree, which was incorporated as a tax-exempt non-profit organization in 1982. The name comes from the Old Testament Prophet Micah, who spoke of a day when we beat our "swords into plowshares" and everyone dwells securely under his own vine and fig tree. More Info. I received positive encouragement on this venture from Dorothy Rushdoony, and on the trip back home from Vallecito, I think I realized that my future was not with Chalcedon, but rather with Vine & Fig Tree. My "swords into plowshares" pacifism, combined with a rejection of capital punishment (on strictly "Theonomic" grounds), seemed to me to be the logical development of Rushdoony's thinking, but ran contrary to the prevailing views of the "Christian Reconstructionist" mainstream.

I graduated from USC with a degree in political science in 1979. Because of the negative things Rushdoony said about secular universities, I did not want to go to college, hoping to move more directly to a Rushdoony-like career, but my father (a USC alumnus) was insistent. Perhaps the most enjoyable class I had was a class on "Political Philosophy" with John Hospers, who had been the Chairman of the Philosophy Department until he ran for President as the Libertarian Party candidate in 1972. Hospers, along with Rushdoony, could be described as a "minarchist." He believed, along with Rushdoony, that society needed a small civil government. One of his recommended textbooks in the class was Murray Rothbard's For A New Liberty. This was a breathtaking book in the mid-1970's. Rothbard argued that society needed no "civil government" whatsoever. I didn't think Hospers defended his minimal state against Rothbard's critique. My memory of chronology fails me, but if I was not an anarchist walking into Hospers' class, because of all that Rushdoony had said about the dangers of the State, I was an anarchist when I walked out.

"The church" has always said that The State is a "divine institution." I don't see that in the Bible. And Rushdoony taught me to put the Bible ahead of both church and state.

I suspect many people have been brainwashed against the word "anarchist," but know deep down that it is a sin to be an "archist."

What is an "Archist?"

I am Not an Archist.

School Teacher

My mother taught in California public schools for 30 years. The first job I had after graduating from college was teaching in a small Christian school. Part of my ministry to the homeless was teaching English as a second language to dozens of "illegal" immigrants. One of my housemates went on to teach in public schools, and I spent many hours helping her with bureaucratic administrative paper work.

Legal Education

Rushdoony was a proponent of Christian education, frequently appearing as an expert witness in Christian school cases vs. the increasingly-secular government. I worked with homeschoolers and studied law to help defend them in court. This was when homeschooling was illegal in California. By the time I passed the California Bar Exam, it was less persecuted. But then I was told by a Federal District Court in Los Angeles that because my allegiance to God was greater than my allegiance to the State, I could not be permitted to take the oath to "support the Constitution" required of all would-be attorneys, so I could not get a license to practice law. Details

"Seminary"

I shared the pulpit at a small church in Anaheim, CA with David Chilton, until he joined Gary North, James B. Jordan and the "Christian Reconstructionists" in Tyler, TX. Greg L. Bahnsen, one of the leaders of the "Christian Reconstruction" movement and a pastor in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, wanted to see if he could get me ordained in the OPC by apprenticing me, rather than through the modern "seminary" system. I thought that was quixotic, but I enjoyed his one-on-one mentoring. Bahnsen was a Christian scholar with integrity and a sharp mind. Scholarship is a virtue. Bahnsen taught me that we should treat our intellectual opponents with Biblical love (1 Corinthians 13:5-7), and interact with their arguments with respect. My personal library is about 10,000 volumes, becoming something of an anarchronism in the Internet age.

Social Work

After passing the Bar Exam, I spent the better part of a decade with a small group of Christian anarchists who rented a large house in the "wrong" part of town and opened its doors to those who were homeless and wanted to get clean and sober, find a job, and save up first- and last-month's rent for a place of their own. We gave shelter and encouragement to over 1,000 people during the time I lived there, with an average of about 19 people at a time sharing our home, and served tens of thousands of meals and passed out thousands of bags of groceries to the poor in our neighborhood. We held weekly candlelight vigils in front of the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station to question militarism and violence.

Our house was called "Isaiah House," and took its inspiration from Peter Maurin, a man who thought a great deal like Rushdoony. Maurin was a decisive influence in the life of Dorothy Day, a socialist agitator in the New Deal era, who converted to Christianity and founded the Catholic Worker movement, largely perceived today as a "left-wing" movement. Maurin said, "I am a radical of the right. I go right to the right because I know it is the only way not to get left." Maurin advised, "Read Our Enemy the State by Albert Jay Nock."

I moved in with these Catholic Anarchists because I saw in their kitchen and dining room the closest thing I'd seen to the L'Abri fellowship under Francis and Edith Schaeffer, a family setting I greatly admired and to which I aspired. The closest I came to the Schaeffers was seeing Francis Schaeffer live at the Anaheim Convention Center in 1977 when he was on tour promoting his book and film, How Should We Then Live.

Hospice

When my father got lung cancer, I left the Catholic Worker and helped him gulp down 70 pills a day and daily pumped into his heart two liters of an anti-cancer solution under an FDA clinical trial in Houston, TX. After his death I moved my mother back to Missouri (where she was born), and our house was destroyed by a tornado. After being taken by helicopter to the hospital, she came back to my care on a feeding tube. For six years she was immobile, and for the last three years of her life my full-time job was turning her over in bed every three hours to avoid bed sores. We buried her on May 3, 2015.

During all of the above, I have been researching and writing, preparing to advance the Vine & Fig Tree vision, and have produced in the neighborhood of 2,000 webpages and blog posts. Some of them have been duplicated on other sites by people I don't think I've even met.

2016 and Beyond

Beginning in 2002, I have been a perennial candidate for U.S. Congress, both before and after I moved to Missouri. Even though I haven't been able to get out of the house to do much campaigning recently, I've still managed to be the top vote-getter among Libertarian Party Congressional candidates in Missouri for the last few elections (FWIW). I would love to campaign full-time, and bring my brand of "Christian Reconstruction" before the press and electorate.

I am actually an "anti-candidate."

When I first decided to run, it was primarily to gain a soapbox. I knew I had no chance of winning any election (or being inaugurated into any political office). But being an "official" "candidate" presented an opportunity to appear on radio, TV, and newspaper which an "ordinary" propagandist cannot get.

My first decision was which political Party to affiliate with. I decided against the Constitution Party because of their advocacy of state violence against immigrants. I joined the Libertarian Party even though it is not an explicitly Christian party, as the Constitution Party is.

But I am not going to run as a Libertarian in 2016. I was rejected by the Constitution Party as a candidate. I'm exploring options as of April, 2016.

After my caregiving duties ended upon the death of my mother, I grabbed the first job I could find to "pay the rent." I'm now working full-time at Cox Medical Center in Branson, MO. I get decked out in a disposable "haz-mat" suit (PPE) and clean the module in the pharmacy where they put together IV's for patients, as well as the operating room in OB where C-sections are performed, and anything else that needs to be cleaned. I'm a "tech" in "Environmental Services." Some would just say "janitor." The Apostle Paul, who was more important in the formation of what we call "Western Civilization" (Christian Civilization) than Aristotle, was a maker of tents. This website cannot be viewed on the CoxHealth intranet. It has been banned.

"Your Bible Coach"

I hope someday to fund my campaigns, propaganda, and agitation by being a professional (paid) "Bible Coach." Something like the kind of coach George Washington would be if he could travel through time. Or maybe a "teacher" of some kind. Or founder of some kind of online academy that helps people develop a Christian/Biblical Worldview, on the model of the Khan Academy. An online university, perhaps. With "coaches" instead of "professors."

My Destination

Vine & Fig Tree 

My destination in life is to help accelerate the fulfillment of the prophet Micah's “Vine & Fig Tree” prophecy. I'm sowing seeds, though I'll never really see the harvest.

R. J. Rushdoony wrote the following:

In principle, Adams is advocating "Theocracy." Adams is saying we should be governed by God and His Law Book, the Bible.

I believe the only law book we need is the Bible. The Bible is a textbook for every subject, not just religion.

Worse than that, John Adams is advocating "anarchy" (in the eyes of the Trump-Biden Regime). "Law books" are created by "governments." No "law books" = no "government." Taking the Bible as our only "law book" is taking the Creator as our only King. Adams' "utopia" or "paradise" is the absence of human lawmakers and rulers, and complete reliance on one King, one Judge, one Lawgiver (Isaiah 33:22).

The army of bureaucrats in Washington D.C. would say any revolutionary "religious right" extremist like John Adams is advocating "anarchy."

Benjamin Rush signed the Declaration of Independence and served in the Presidential administrations of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison -- each of whom came from a different political party. And of what party was Rush? He answered,

I have been alternately called an aristocrat and a democrat. I am now neither. I am a Christocrat. I believe all power. . . will always fail of producing order and happiness in the hands of man. He alone Who created and redeemed man is qualified to govern him.

The Bible says God is our Lawgiver, Judge, and King (Isaiah 33:22). That's all three "branches" of government under the U.S. Constitution. But the overwhelming majority of church-going Christians would be appalled at the idea of abolishing all earthly governments and submitting to the government of Jesus Christ, the Messiah-King. The Bible says Jesus is the only legitimate Governor. Human governments are idolatry. In the Bible, human governors are false gods.

The words of Adams are an endorsement of "Anarcho-Christocracy."

The Bible as the "only law book?"

• No United States Statutes at Large?
• No Administrative Law?
• No Executive Orders?
• No Supreme Court rulings?
• An entire Law Library replaced with the Bible??

Nobody in government today would ever say what Adams said, not even in "hyperbole":

 "We should take the Bible for our only law book."

That's too "radical." That's "extremist." It's "homophobic." Or something. Only a "domestic terrorist" or "insurrectionist" would say something like that. (The Signers of the Declaration of Independence would be highly disappointed that Trump's January 6 "insurrectionists" really had no intention at all of discharging their duty to abolish a tyrannical anti-Christian regime.)

John Quincy Adams, in an “Oration on the Life and Character of Gilbert Motier de la Fayette,” Delivered at the request of both Houses of the Congress of the United States, before them, in the House of Representatives at Washington, on the 31st of December, 1834, said:

The war was revolutionary. It began by the dissolution of the British Government in the Colonies; the People of which were, by that operation, left without any Government whatever.

J. Q. Adams was exaggerating. America was not "left without any Government whatever." Americans had "government" -- self-government. James Madison, "the Father of the Constitution," is reported to have said this:

We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves ... according to the Ten Commandments of God.

Americans would be well-governed not because they had laws, statutes, executive orders, regulations, and Supreme Court opinions from a "civil government," but because they had the Bible. The current Constitution has been an astonishing failure. Thomas Jefferson said we should have a new constitution every 20 years.

Thought experiment: America's Founding Fathers abolished their government. It had become a "tyranny." In hindsight, we can say they replaced the government they abolished with one that turned out to be even more tyrannical. And if they could see today's high-tax, high-immorality murderous atheistic sodomist  government in Washington D.C., I fail to see how anyone could doubt that America's Founders would take up their muskets to abolish the government of the United States -- which they ostensibly created.

America's Founding Fathers are too radical for today's postmillennialists. Jacob Hornberger writes:

Our ancestors brought into existence a society in which there was no income tax or IRS, one where people could keep everything they earned and decide for themselves what to do with it. There was no Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, farm subsidies, education grants, food stamps, public housing, or FDIC. Indeed, there was no welfare state or mandatory, coercive charity. There were no drug laws. There were very few economic regulations, especially at the federal level. No minimum-wage laws. No occupational-licensure laws. No Federal Reserve. No fiat money: the official U.S. money consisted of coins made out of precious metals. No immigration controls. No public (i.e., government) schooling. No national-security state. America had a relatively small army that was nothing like the enormous military establishment and military-industrial complex that exist today. No foreign military bases. No regime-change operations, coups, foreign interventions, foreign aid, or alliances with foreign regimes. No CIA. No NSA. No official programs for mass surveillance, torture, and assassination.

That is the most remarkable political and economic achievement in history. Never in history has there existed such a society. It was the closest that people have ever come to what libertarians envision as a genuinely free society. Notwithstanding the exceptions (e.g., slavery and tariffs), the result was the freest and most prosperous nation in history and certainly among the most peaceful and harmonious for most of the time (the Civil War, the Mexican War, slavery, and the war against American Indians being notable exceptions).

Today the exceptions have become the rule.

John Adams signed a Declaration of Independence which says we have a duty -- not just a "right," but a duty -- to abolish any government that becomes a tyranny. America's Founders abolished their government. They said their government had crossed the line and had become a tyranny. If America's Founders could travel through time from their day to ours, they would be appalled at our government, then outraged, and then they would take immediate steps to abolish it. A government that confiscates two-thirds of everything we own and uses it to promote abortion and homosexuality would surely qualify as "tyranny" in the eyes of America's Founders.

Were they under a Biblical obligation in 1776 to replace the "civil government" they abolished with another "civil government?" I don't think so. They did.

If we were starting over, creating a new society, what kind of constitution should we choose? I would say we have learned a lesson from the last 200 years. Laissez-faire capitalism (or something pretty close to that) during the first 100 years after the Constitution made America the most prosperous and admired nation in history. The second century, seeing the rise of secular progressivism, turned our prosperity into bankruptcy and our admiration into loathing and ridicule. This 200-year experiment, combined with the economic theory of great economists like Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard, has surely proven that there is nothing human beings need in a society that cannot be provided by a free market, and requires some degree of socialism or Keynesianism.

Rushdoony authored a book called Institutes of Biblical Law [read] [buy], explaining how the Bible had been used as a law book in John Adams' day (and throughout the history of Christendom), and how the Bible could be used today. Rushdoony's "law book" is not the same kind of "law book" as those found in a law library, containing statutes and decrees of government, enforced by violent earthly enforcers. Rushdoony's book explains how to take the Bible as our only law book.

The reason we don't need a library of books on compulsion and violence is because there is no verse in the Bible that anyone can point to and say,

Joe Biden cannot say that. Vladimir Putin cannot say that. No human being on planet earth in our day can say that. If you take the Bible seriously, that claim has staggering implications. Can you find such a verse in the Bible that Putin can legitimately point to? If there is no such verse, "civil government" should not exist.

Adams was less of a consistent Anarcho-Christocrat than Benjamin Rush. Adams believed mankind needed "civil government" under human archists. He got this idea from the Greeks, not the Bible. This point is massive. There is a comprehensive war between "Jerusalem and Athens." There is a civilization-wide conflict between what Augustine called "The City of God" and "the City of Man."

• Jerusalem vs. Athens
• Natural Law: Jerusalem vs. Athens
• The City of God
• Theonomy vs. Autonomy

The reason why so many Christian scholars believe that "civil government" is legitimate is because they have drawn their views from Roman law rather than Hebrew Law (now Christian Law). They draw their views from Athens rather than Jerusalem; from "the Academy" rather than from the Scriptures.

In most cases, those who are committed to the existence of "civil government" ("the public sector," "the monopoly of violence") find "civil law" in what is actually the "ceremonial law." This is because Moses did not create a "civil government." He created a Levitical priesthood, and he also set down laws for slave-like patriarchs who were dysfunctional and were about to be destroyed in the wilderness. Neither one of these law-categories are "standing law" which we are obligated to observe today.

• Government: Patriarchal or Political?

The Declaration of Independence (1776) says we have a duty -- not just a "right," but a duty -- to abolish any government that crosses the line and becomes a "tyranny." Those men would say the U.S. crossed that line decades ago, and should be abolished A.S.A.P.

But the abolition of tyranny must come about by persuasion and repentance rather than armed revolution and coercion.

I believe Jesus is the "Prince of Peace"

Call me a "pacifist" who believes we should love our enemies and beat "swords into plowshares."
Call me an "anarchist" who opposes the institutionalized systematic violence of "the State," the "monopoly of violence."

Everyone tells me I'm a totally "unrealistic" and "impractical" "utopian."

 

I am a Christian

I worship Jesus, the Incarnate Word. I worship the Bible, the inscriptured Word

I am a "Bible-believing" Christian. Feel free to accuse me of engaging in "bibliolatry," "fundamentalism," "extremism," "creationism," "Calvinism," "Theonomy," "patriarchy," etc. Guilty as charged.
 

I believe Jesus is the Christ

Jews don't believe this. Nor does any "church" I know of. 

 

During my lifetime, "my" government, "The United States of America," has killed, crippled, or made homeless TENS of MILLIONS of innocent, non-combatant civilians around the world. See, "George Bush and the U.S. Military's War on Christianity" America used to be a Christian nation (if any "nation" can be "Christian"), but today the U.S. is a "diverse" and "inclusive," nation, where every pagan idea is included, and only Christianity is excluded. God says, "All they that hate Me love death." (Proverbs 8:36). All pagan religions promise an escape from life, and this escape from life is imposed by pagan nations and their armies, like that of the United States. World Peace is possible only when the world is Christianized by faith, not by might. (Psalm 33:16; Exodus 3:19; Zechariah 4:6; Philemon 1:14) The vast majority of church-going "Christians" have more faith in death and the "Second Amendment" than they do in God. They worship war, not peace. They will not beat their "swords into plowshares."

I am proud to be a Christian Anarchist.

People say that's a contradiction in terms. Christians are supposed to be good people, but "anarchists" are bad people.

The word "anarchist" comes from two Greek words meaning "not an archist."

What is an archist?" Someone who believes he has the right to impose his own will on other people by force or threats of violence.

As I read the Bible, "archists" are the worst people.
The Bible is an Anarchist Manifesto. Archism is the opposite of "Peace"

My Credo

• Orthopraxy - right action
• Orthodoxy - right doctrine
• Orthopraxy + orthodoxy = "Worldview"

The Vine & Fig Tree worldview is my heart and soul.
 

No entity calling itself a "church" anywhere on planet earth would let me be a member.

I Cannot "Attend Church" Anywhere

I believe the Bible is the Word of God, so I'm a "Calvinist" (read more)

The Bible says Jesus became the Christ in "the last days" of the Old Covenant, so I'm a Preterist."

I'm a Creationist."

The only legitimate "nation" is the one mentioned in 1 Peter 2:9. So I support Open Borders.

Since Jesus is my Lord, I treat every word He speaks as my marching orders: Theonomy.

Jesus governs from the right hand of the Father in heaven: Theocracy.

Jesus commands me not to hurt people or take their stuff, so I am a Pacifist.

Since I oppose violence, I oppose every monopoly of violence, and that makes me an Anarchist.

I believe God created human beings "male and female" (Genesis 1:26-28), and that's called Patriarchy.

The “Vine & Fig Tree” worldview is likened to Agrarianism, but our goal is the City of God.

The early church practiced voluntary Communism.

The Family makes the best school: Home Schooling

Giving children good character is better than making them "geniuses." Bill Gothard's Bible Cult

We should care for the weak in our society: Socialism, as opposed to individualistic "crony capitalism."

Our job is to pray "Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven," and work to create heaven on earth: Eternity Now

My Credo

Our word "creed" comes from the Latin word credo, which means "I believe." Many people have penned their "credo." Here is Einstein's Credo, which isn't Christian. Here is Cornelius Van Til's, which is. That's the soil where my creed has roots.

Cornelius Van Til stands in the Reformed genealogy of Calvin, and the Dutch branch of Bavink and Abraham Kuyper. Van Til was one of the founding faculty of Westminster Seminary and homage is paid to him and J. Gresham Machen by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, to which I once belonged, and was personally tutored for possible ordination in the OPC by Greg L. Bahnsen, a student of Van Til. Among Van Til's progeny are Francis Schaeffer, R.J. Rushdoony, and Rushdoony's son-in-law, Gary North. Van Til, Rushdoony and North are at the top of my list of favorite Christian authors. Van Til's book The Defense of the Faith is perhaps my #1 favorite book, though I've read and enjoyed all of Van Til. Likewise Rushdoony and North.

Perhaps Edith Schaeffer had more of an influence on me than Francis, and as much as Rushdoony. When How Should We Then Live came out, I saw the Schaeffers at a seminar in So. Calif., but never visited L'Abri in Switzerland. But I have always wanted to emulate their ministry. The closest I have come so far has been a decade at the Catholic Worker: Isaiah House in Santa Ana, Calif. L'Abri has always been the brass ring I've reached for. I've laid the foundation, but thus far haven't built the house.

The foundation of my credo is the "Vine & Fig Tree" vision of the Prophet Micah.

Vine & Fig Tree

Here are nine "Core Values" that can be seen in Micah's vision:

Distilled into a single proposition, Vine & Fig Tree stands for this:

Jesus is the Christ Today

Most people might think that the juxtaposition of "Jesus" and "Christ" is obvious.

But when you dig deeper, it appears that this is the most controversial proposition on planet earth.

This website defends the proposition that Jesus is the Messiah right now, and has fulfilled or is fulfilling all the "messianic prophecies" -- even those prophecies most Christians reserve for "the millennium."

Jesus is the Christ.

The two most controversial words in that statement are the words "IS" and "THE."

Most church-going Christians believe that Jesus will become the Messiah at a future Christmas, a future advent, a future "Second Coming." But the word "IS" -- present tense -- is the wrong word to use about Jesus being the Messiah. To say that Jesus "is" the Messiah is to say that He already became the Messiah and began ruling in the past. The word "preterit" is from the Latin word for "past," and the idea that Jesus began ruling as Messiah in the past is called "the heresy of preterism." 
 
 

The word "Christ" also has many meanings. The basic meaning is "anointed," as in "king" (Matthew 21:5 ), e.g., "King of Israel" (John 1:49). Jesus is also called a "Ruler" (Micah 5:2), a "Potentate" (1 Timothy 6:15 ), a "Governor" (Matthew 2:6 ), a "Captain" (Hebrews 2:10 ), a "Prince" (Isaiah 9:6 ), and many other words (some of which we aren't familiar with in our day, like "Horn" [Luke 1:69 ]) which are political in nature.

Many political terms can be inferred:

• Jesus is a "servant," which is another word for "minister," and Jesus is surely the "Prime Minister."
• In his inaugural address, George Washington spoke of "that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations." The one who "presides" is the "president."
• Jesus is our King, our Lawgiver, and our Judge (Isaiah 33:22) -- all three branches of government under the U.S. Constitution.

Our point is that Jesus is the -- THE -- the ONLY -- legitimate king, prince, ruler, president, prime minister, governor, legislator, judge, and potentate. If we simply practice what we preach -- by obeying His commandments -- we will have a peaceful, orderly, and prosperous society. All other earthly kings, princes, rulers, presidents, prime ministers, governors, legislators, judges, and potentates are illegitimate usurpers and anti-Christ.

I know what you're thinking. "What are you, some kind of ANARCHIST?" That suspicion is the kind of thing we were all taught in schools run by earthly kings, princes, rulers, presidents, prime ministers, governors, legislators, judges, and potentates. We are never taught what Jesus taught.

Jesus said the kings of the gentiles love to impose their will on other people by political and military force, but Christ's followers are not to do these things (Mark 10:42-45). Mark uses the Greek word from which we get our English word "anarchist." He says the kings of the Gentiles love to be "archists." But Christians are NOT to be "archists." So some folks will say all this talk about Jesus being THE Ruler -- the only legitimate Ruler -- will lead to "anarchy." Obeying Jesus as the Christ will certainly lead to the elimination of bloodthirsty empires and their Caesars, Pharaohs, and Führers. But it will certainly not lead to chaos and lawlessness (which is what most people have been trained to think of when they hear the word "anarchism" or contemplate the absence of "archists" in the swordless Kingdom of Christ).

Taken together, the two words "IS" and "THE" are branded as the heresy of "anarcho-preterism."

This website maintains that "anarcho-preterism" is "the real meaning of Christmas."

This website maintains that "anarcho-preterism" is "the Gospel."

We in 21st century America enjoy the highest standard of living in human history. This is a result of the Christianization of the world, relentless in its progress, though faster in some ages than others (it's slowed down in the last 100 years, by many standards, at least in the now-secular West [northern hemisphere]). Micah's vision animated America's Founding Fathers. It must do so again. In the 20th century, secular empires murdered an average of 10,000 people per day, every single day during the last century. In America, an additional 4,000 babies are killed every day, many times more in China and the "former" Soviet Union -- 135,000 a day around the world. Literally billions of people in our day are separated from the Gospel by tyrannical atheistic or Muslim governments.

But Christians today are anesthetized by complacency and self-indulgence. They're waiting for "the rapture." Francis Schaeffer spoke of "personal peace and affluence."

My Credo is not just what I believe, but what I want to be. Many "heresy hunters" want to find out what I believe about the Trinity, or the mode of Baptism, but for me, orthopraxis is more important than orthodoxy.

So before we look at my doctrine, let's look at my practice. In a sense I believe that doctrine is more important than practice. A "real nice guy" who believes he is his own god is lost in a most fundamental sense. Even a person of the most extraordinary virtue is lost if he/she refuses to submit to the authority of God in the Bible. On the other hand, people often construct their theology to justify their morality. A man wants to cheat on his wife, so he comes up with a doctrine of God who says nothing about marriage.  Show me a man's morality and I know a lot about his theology. So here is a summary of my morality.

First, I generally follow the view of the Protestant Reformers on the Ten Commandments. You can find the Reformers' view in the Exposition of the Ten Commandments in the Westminster Larger Catechism. My views can be found in a syllabus for a program I have taught in various schools, churches, and other venues, of which the following is an excerpt, with language often taken verbatim from the Catechism:

The First Commandment is, “thou shalt have no other gods before Me.”

The Second Commandment is, “thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth, thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep my commandments.”

The Third Commandment is, “thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.”

The Fourth Commandment is, “Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”

The Fifth Commandment is, “honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”

The Sixth Commandment is, “thou shalt not kill.”

The Seventh Commandment is, “thou shalt not commit adultery.”

The Eighth Commandment is, “thou shalt not steal.”

The Ninth Commandment is, “thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”

The Tenth Commandment is, “thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.”

Having been personally tutored by R.J. Rushdoony, and strongly influenced by The Institutes of Biblical Law, his magnum opus, I would like to provide a list of some chapters in Rushdoony's Institutes. This helps show the social scope which I believe God's Law has: 

III. The Third Commandment

2. Swearing and Revolution

3. The Oath and Society

5. The Oath and Authority

IV. The Fourth Commandment

3. The Sabbath and Work

5. The Sabbath and Law

Appendix: The Economics of Sabbath keeping -- by Gary North

V. The Fifth Commandment

1. The Authority of the Family

3. The Economics of the Family

4. Education and the Family

5. The Family and Delinquency

VI. The Sixth Commandment

2. The Death Penalty

5. Hybridization and Law

6. Abortion

8. Restitution or Restoration

9. Military Laws and Production

10. Taxation

13. Quarantine Laws

14. Dietary Rules

20. Social Inheritance: Landmarks

VII. The Seventh Commandment

1. Marriage

5. Family Law

6. Marriage and Monogamy

7. Incest

9. Sex and Crime

11. Adultery

12. Divorce

14. Homosexuality

17. The Transvestite

18. Bestiality

VIII. The Eighth Commandment

1. Dominion

2. Theft

3. Restitution and Forgiveness

4. Liability of the Bystander

5. Money and Measure

6. Usury

9. Landmarks and Land

10. The Virgin Birth and Property

11. Fraud

12. Eminent Domain

13. Labor Laws

15. Prison

18. The Rights of Strangers, Widows, and Orphans

IX. The Ninth Commandment

5. Corroboration

6. Perjury

8. False Witness

11. Slander Within Marriage

13. Slander as Theft

16. Judges

17. The Responsibility of Judges and Rulers

18. The Court

19. The Procedure of the Court

20. The Judgment of the Court

X. The Tenth Commandment

1. Covetousness

3. Special Privilege

5. The System

I would like to summarize some of the practical implications of God's Law, which are briefly referred to in the section on the Law of God (chap 19). One way I advance the ideals contained in God's Law is by running for political office. Not that I ever expect to win, but simply as a platform or vehicle for propagating Biblical values, on radio, television, in debates, forums and town halls. Here is an excerpt from my campaign home page:

My goal is to develop the character of Christ in my life and others. Here are my thoughts and meditations on Godly character:

The Character of Christ - View Character Trait Accomplished Accurate Alert Amiable Analytical Aspiring Available Bold Calm Cautious Charitable Chaste Cheerful Composed Concentration Confident Contentment Cooperative Courage Courteous Creativity Decisiveness Dependability Diligence Discernment Discretion Earnest Efficiency Emotions Endurance Energy Enthusiasm Expressiveness Fair-mindedness Faithful Flexibility Foresight Forgiveness Frankness Frugality Generosity Gentleness Goal Apprehension Goal Direction Gratefulness Honesty Hope Hospitality Humility Industry Initiative Interest in People Kindness Loyalty Manners Maturity Meekness Memory Motivation of Others Music Neatness Objectivity Organization Overcomer Non-violent Parenting Patience Perfection Perseverance Persistence Persuasiveness Planning Punctuality Purposefulness Reading Recovery Relaxation Resoluteness Resourcefulness Respectfulness Responsibility Reverence Security Self-Assurance Self-Discipline Self-Education Self-Improvement Self-Respect Self-Starting Sensitivity Sincerity Speech Success Thoroughness Thriftiness Tolerance Touch Truthfulness Virtuous Wisdom Work for Quality

Here is another glimpse at my personal morality, in an A-Z listing of a few contemporary subjects:

Together, orthopraxis and orthodoxy make up one's worldview.

Every day you are bombarded with billions of facts. Which facts are important? How do you interpret them?

A Worldview is the pair of glasses through which you view the world. It is the grid which filters, prioritizes, and sorts billions of facts and makes sense out of life. It helps you decide whether you view a fact with joy or with sadness. It may tell you to ignore some facts altogether. It is the foundation upon which you build the structure of your life.

Do we live in an orderly universe with predictable regularities, or do we live in a random, evolving, undependable and chaotic universe? The answer depends on which worldview you choose. "Is science possible?" is a question science cannot answer. It is an assumption of your worldview.

A Worldview is a presupposition. People don't choose their worldview because they are forced to by a neutral observation of brute facts. People choose a worldview to justify their morality. They choose a worldview to justify ignoring some facts and emphasizing other facts.

Aldous Huxley, grandson of Thomas H. Huxley (who was called "Darwin's Bulldog"), explained how he chose his worldview:

A worldview also characterizes a society, or nation. Millions of people can be controlled and directed by the "worldview" of their government or leader. Those with an active "worldview" tend to dominate those with a passive "worldview":

• Active: "It is my destiny to rule over others."
• Passive: "I'll never amount to much. I just take what comes my way."
• Active: "God created me to enrich the lives of those in my family and my fellowman."
• Passive: "The universe is an accident. Mankind just evolved. I just do what I'm told. Maybe I'll win the lottery."

A worldview perpetuates itself.

• A Christian worldview creates a Christian civilization, which allows people to contemplate and refine their understanding of the universe.
• A pagan worldview creates paganism, not civilization, in which human beings are dominated by superstition and the forces of nature, and between hunting and gathering don't have time for philosophy (from the Greek words meaning "love of wisdom").

A worldview is your ultimate philosophical commitment. It is your religion. You apply your worldview to everything you think and do.

“I was already a Christian, but my worldview had not yet caught up to my Christian commitment. It can take a long time to apply the lessons of the Bible to your life, your work, and your community. Those days were the time when I began to do that.
Joseph Farah, editor, WorldNetDaily

What Joseph Farah is saying is that he grew up with the worldview of the religion of Secular Humanism, which says there is no God, that man is his own god. Farah had been applying this philosophy/religion to his own life. Then Farah realized he was not God, but Christ is Lord of Farah's life. That meant Farah had to start learning how to obey Jesus rather than Joseph Farah and other Humanists. Life, work, community. Every area of life is affected by one's ultimate worldview.

It also means that Christ had to become Lord of Farah's personal life, his work, his community: every facet of human life and society.

Kevin Craig agrees with a former Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Abraham Kuyper, who proclaimed:
 

"In the total expanse of human life there is not a single square inch of which the Christ, who alone is sovereign, does not declare, that is Mine! "

  We must use our God-given powers of reason and logic to apply Christ's model of love and justice to every area of life:

• Relationships - family, friends, neighbors, associates
• Culture/Institutions - language, church, state, music, ethics
• Community/Government - nation, state, community, neighborhood
• Creation/Environment - the creation and the use we make of it
• Economics/Vocation - jobs, income, economic activities
• Science/Technology - tools, technologies, ways of knowing and using the creation
• Religion/Spirituality - Christianity, Islam, atheism, church, spiritual life
• Education/Development - formal schooling, life experience, lifelong learning

Your worldview provides answers to these basic questions:

• Why is there something rather than nothing? "
  • Where did I come from?
• Why is there sin and suffering?
  • What’s wrong with the world?
• Is there hope - can we eliminate sin and suffering?
  • What can be done to fix it?
• What part does God want me to play in this transformation?
  • What is my purpose?

Gary North applies these questions to your business, your nation, your world, your universe:

• Who's in charge here?
• To whom do I report?
• What are the rules?
• What do I get for obeying or disobeying?
• Does this outfit have a future?

The original American Worldview is seen in the Declaration of Independence:

The Declaration of Independence provides another standard we can use to evaluate our worldview: compare it with "The Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." The Ten Commandments summarize a Biblical worldview. In reverse order, here are the questions the Ten Commandments begin to ask about your worldview:

10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

Am I filled with resentment from envying the rich and coveting what I don't have? Most Political Campaigns appeal to envy, resentment, and covetousness. "Vote for me and I'll take money from the rich and give it to you!" An economy based on covetousness eventually self-destructs.

 
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

Do I lie to cover up my character defects? What would politics be without lying?

 
8. Thou shalt not steal.

Do I cheat others to gratify myself? The essence of politics today is stealing from others to get something for nothing. "Thou shalt not steal--except by majority vote" is how politicians have re-written this commandment.

 
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Have I kept my marriage vows? Do I lust and have impure thoughts and actions? It's astonishing how many of today's most famous politicians left their first wife for a younger, prettier lobbyist. The Family is God's central institution, not "the State."

 
6. Thou shalt not kill.

Am I willing to hurt other people to protect myself? "The State" is symbolized by "the sword." It kills people who get in its way.

 
5. Honour thy father and thy mother:
that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

Am I angry at my parents, and is our relationship broken? Do I project my anger against them onto other authorities?

 
4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
{9} Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
{10} But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: {11} For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Do I work to serve God and others, or do I expect something for nothing? Am I able to rest, and trust God?

 
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain;
for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Do I take the Lord's Name in vain? Politicians say "I will support the Constitution, so help me God." They never do.

 
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,
or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
{5} Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; {6} And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Do I cover up my character defects with "religion" and false spirituality?                          America's Founders warned against "false religions"

 
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Is my relationship with God broken because I am trying to be my own god (Genesis 3:5)? Do I seek to be god over others? One of America's greatest problems is viewing the government as savior, which is a false god. It is a sin to be a false god, as well as to trust in false gods. America's Founders believed that choosing "security" over liberty was the mark of idolatry.

A campaign to reduce the size and intrusiveness of government will be futile unless it deals with the worldview question. Gary North writes:

Resources on "Worldview" [skip]

• What's a Worldview Anyway?
• What is a Worldview?
• What is a Biblical Worldview?
• What is a world view?
• Worldviews -- Introduction
• Barna Group
  • A Biblical Worldview Has a Radical Effect on a Person's Life
  • Most Adults Feel Accepted by God, But Lack a Biblical Worldview
  • Only Half Of Protestant Pastors Have A Biblical Worldview
  • Virginia Tech Shootings a Symptom of Pathological Worldview
  • A Liberal View of the Conservative Biblical Worldview ReligiousTolerance.org
  • New Study Shows Just 4% of Americans Have Biblical Worldview Rick Warren's Ministry Toolbox
• Today's "culture wars" are, in fact, "worldview wars."
• Worldview: History and Christian Application of Weltanschauung Theory
• Christian Worldview -- A Biblical Worldview
• Worldview Defined and Diversity
• Probe Ministries - Worldviews
• Probe Ministries - Why Worldview?
• Worldview and Culture
  • The Christian worldview can be summed up in a single phrase: "Jesus is Lord" -- which is the first creed of Christianity. Understanding Christ's lordship over all of life is no easy task. Yet, once we begin to understand that all of life--not just "church" life--is of intense interest to God, we are able to bring a renewed sense of purpose to our lives and faith.
  • The Lordship of Christ does not allow us to ignore art, politics, or literature, any more than it allows us to ignore the lost, hungry, sick, or the poor. Only by seeing the world through God's eyes, or what we call "thinking Christianly," will we understand our mandate to redeem the fullness of our culture and reach out to a dying world.
  • Bottom line: our interests can be no smaller than God's.
• Worldview Web Guide - Prison Fellowship
• Arts
• Communications and Journalism
• History and Political Science
• Law
• Literature
• Philosophy
• Religion
• Science and Mathematics
• Social Sciences and Psychology
• World view - Wikipedia
  • Worldviews in Religion and Philosophy
• Probe Ministries - Worldview and Truth
• Probe Ministries - Worldviews, Part 2
• Probe Ministries - Christian Worldview Links
• The Necessity of a Reformed World and Life View

• Presenting the Christian Worldview
• Worldview, Worship, and Way of Life
• Rewired: The Christian Worldview
• Worldview Web Guide
• Worldview Weapons
• The Importance of Developing a Christian Worldview
• Two Men and Two Worldviews pt 1
• Two Men and Two Worldviews pt 2
• Mere Belief
• Worldview and the Church
• The North Star of Biblical Worldview
• Worldview Church - 57 Articles
• BreakPoint WorldView Magazine - 24 Articles
• Worldview Analysis 101
• A Word for "Worldview Junkies"
• What Does it Mean to Bear the Cross in the West?
• William Cowper and Creation
• Review: The Insider: Bringing the Kingdom of God into your Everyday World
• Wide Angle
• A Sterile Worldview

• Where Worldview Takes Us

• Only Fools Will Laugh

• The Ground and Grist of Christian Worldview

• The Clash of Worldviews

• A Basic Worldview Vocabulary
• My Rather Idiosyncratic Worldview Reading List
• "Christianity" vs. a Christian Worldview
• Mark D. Roberts, "Developing a Biblical Worldview in 2004" -- A Series in Eleven Parts

"Worldview" and "Theocracy"

Those who advocate a Christian "worldview" also advocate "Christian Theocracy." The word "Theocracy" comes from two Greek words meaning "God Governs." God governs every area of life and thought. The German astronomer Johannes Kepler said we are to "think God's thoughts after Him."

Nevertheless, virtually all of the off-site resources listed above, which are able defenses of the idea of Christianity as a world-and-life-view, often run away from the word "Theocracy" (which is defended on this website), even as they wisely note that "theocracy" is often raised by atheists as a boogeyman to scare people away from allowing God's Law to have full sway in society.

Every society is a theocratic "cancel culture." Christians don't want their children exposed to homosexuality and transgenderism. Atheists don't want to live in a society where all other people and institutions openly acknowledge God and practice His Commandments. When Christianity dictates behavior in our neighborhoods, on the job, in schools, in businesses, in the arts and sciences, and in government (if there still is one), atheists see this as an intolerable "theocracy." It's just as bad as an Islamic theocracy, where religion governs everything. But atheism is also a religion: the religion of Secular Humanism. Atheists don't want "freedom of religion," they want "freedom from religion." That means freedom from a Christian worldview put into practice by the rest of society. To attack such a society, they accuse the worldview Christian of trying to "impose a theocracy."

A truly Christian Theocracy (a society under God's Law) is radically different from a Muslim theocracy. A truly Christian Theocracy cannot be imposed without violating Christ's command not to be like the Gentile kings ("archists"). A truly Christian Theocracy is a libertarian worldview that impacts every area of life. In an article entitled, "The Meaning of Theocracy," my mentor, R.J. Rushdoony, said

Few things are more commonly misunderstood than the nature and meaning of theocracy. It is commonly assumed to be a dictatorial rule by self-appointed men who claim to rule for God. In reality, theocracy in Biblical law is the closest thing to a radical libertarianism that can be had. Dictionaries to the contrary, theocracy is not a government by the state but a government over every institution by God and His Law, and through the activities of the free man in Christ to bring every area of life and thought under Christ's Kingship [2 Corinthians 10:3-5].

"Theocracy" means "God rules." God rules when we obey His Commandments.

OK, now we come to theological doctrines.

My background is Reformed Protestantism. This can be summed up with the "Five Solas of the Reformation":

• Sola Scriptura
• Solus Christus
• Sola Gratia
• Sola Fide
• Soli Deo Gloria

Despite the obvious need for a new Reformation, I am sometimes asked about my conformity to the tenets of the old Reformation. Below is a short summary of each chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647) with my opinion of each and appropriate links to my webpages.

Here is an outline of my most obvious agreements and disagreements with the Westminster Confession of Faith, with links to the Extended Discussion below:

Quite candidly there are many parts of the Westminster Standards that I think are more important than many chapters of the Confession itself. The Confession's latter chapters on ecclesiology and eschatology are defective, and the chapters on the "ordo salutis," while correct, are not as relevant in the 21st century as, say, the exposition of the Ten Commandments in the Larger Catechism, particularly the political application of the Sixth and Eighth Commandments. Much eschatological confusion could be clarified by ridding Christendom of the anti-christ doctrine of Christ's postponed Kingship as discussed in qq. 42-45 of the Larger Catechism.

I would also add that I feel the Anabaptists were more consistent reformers (and therefore less Romanist) than the "magisterial reformers."

A Chapter by Chapter Summary of the Primary Teachings of the Westminster Confession of Faith Prepared by James E. Bordwine, Th.D.	I will check this column if I am in  basic agreement with the Confession.	I will explain my convictions and admit my differences in this column. Parts of the Confession that I question are in yellow. Parts that I'm sure I disagree with are in red.
Chapter I Of the Holy Scripture
1. The Holy Scripture, given by the inspiration of God, is necessary because the works of creation and providence are not sufficient to give a saving knowledge of God.		My views on the Bible in general. "Natural Law"
2. God's former methods of revelation have ceased now that the Church possesses the written Scripture.		See "Propositions on Pentecostalism," by James B. Jordan.
3. The Scripture's infallible authority depends solely upon the fact that God is its author, and only as the Holy Spirit bears witness by and with the Word in our hearts will we become fully persuaded of this truth.		Why I Worship the Bible
4. Everything necessary for God's glory, our salvation, faith and life is contained in the Scripture and nothing, at any time or for any reason, is to be added to it.		How to interpret God's Law-Word
5. In all controversies of religion, the Church is to make final appeal to the Scripture, which, by God's providence, has been kept pure in all ages.		Can Believers Criticize Church Councils?
Chapter II Of God and the Holy Trinity
1. There is only one true God who is not dependent on any creature, but has all life, glory, goodness and blessedness in and of Himself.		Total Sovereignty
2. God exercises absolute dominion over all things and may do with them whatsoever He pleases and is due whatsoever worship, service or obedience He requires of His creatures.
3. In the Godhead, there are three persons, the same in substance, equal in power and eternity.
Chapter III Of God's Eternal Decree
1. Although God has unchangeably foreordained whatsoever comes to pass and has predestinated some men and angels unto everlasting life and others to everlasting death, He has done so without becoming the author of sin or doing violence to the will of His creatures.		Total Predestination Proof that even our thoughts are predestined.
2. Those of mankind whom God has predestinated unto life have been chosen in Christ and are effectually called by His Spirit, are justified, adopted, sanctified and kept by His power; the rest of mankind, from whom God has withheld His mercy, have been ordained to dishonor and wrath for their sin.
Chapter IV Of Creation
1. In the space of six days, God created the world out of nothing.		"The Facts" vs. The Faith
2. Man, created in the image of God with the law of God written upon his heart, was left to the liberty of his own will having been commanded not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.		The Laws of Nature and of Nature's God God created man to "exercise dominion" over the earth, which can also be described as "re-creating heaven on earth."
Chapter V Of Providence
1. The providence of God, whereby he governs all creatures and actions, extends to the first fall and all other sins of angels and men so that His own holy ends are accomplished; yet He is neither the author nor approver of sin.		Providence in American History
2. God sometimes allows His own children to be subjected to manifold temptations so that they might be chastised, humbled and drawn closer to Him.
3. God blinds and hardens the wicked by withholding His grace, withdrawing the gifts which they have and giving them over to the power of Satan.
Chapter VI Of the Fall of Man, etc.
1. Our first parents, having sinned in eating the forbidden fruit, fell from their original righteousness and communion with God.		"To be as god"
2. Because they were the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed to all their posterity, along with the corruption of their nature from which proceeds all the sins which we commit.
3. This corruption of nature, though pardoned and mortified through Christ, remains in the regenerate in this life.		Can a Christian be Perfect? The Confession wants to distance itself from certain groups who have claimed to be sinless. These groups have not been sinless, and they have fudged on the requirements of God's Law in order to make their claim. But this does not prove anything about the new nature of the redeemed.
Chapter VII Of God's Covenant with Man
1. God has condescended to man by way of covenant.
2. The first covenant, a covenant of works, promised life in return for perfect obedience; the second covenant, the covenant of grace, freely offers life and salvation to man by Jesus Christ.		Both Covenants require perfect obedience; both covenants grant access to the Tree of Life by grace alone. Some would criticize anyone who denies the highly controversial Covenant of Works. Yet, the Protestant Reformed Church, following their great theologian Herman Hoeksema, denies it. Walter Kaiser, one of the prominent conservative Old Testament scholars of our day, opposes it. R. J. Rushdoony considered it “deadly wrong” (his words). Andrew Sandlin
3. This covenant of grace, though differently administered in the Old and New Testament eras, is essentially one.
Chapter VIII Of Christ the Mediator
1. The Mediator, in which are joined the Godhead and the manhood, was chosen and ordained by God and does, in time, redeem, call, justify, sanctify and glorify the seed given to Him from all eternity.
2. The Son of God, who was God, of one substance and equal with the Father, did take upon Him the nature of man with all of its essential properties and infirmities, yet without sin, being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary.
3. In His role as Mediator, the Lord Jesus perfectly fulfilled the law, triumphed over death by His resurrection, fully satisfied the justice of His Father and purchased reconciliation and an everlasting inheritance for all those whom the Father has given to Him.
4. All of those for whom redemption was purchased, including the elect who lived before the incarnation, have its benefits applied to them by Christ working through His Word and Spirit.
Chapter IX Of Free Will
1. Having been created with a will which was determined neither to good or evil, man, in his pre-fallen state, had the power to will and do that which was well pleasing to God.		The Fall was predestined. God works in the redeemed to will and to do His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13)
2. Fallen man is dead in sin, is unable to convert himself and can be freed from his natural bondage only when God translates him into the state of grace.		The Myth of "Free Will"
Chapter X Of Effectual Calling
1. By His Word and Spirit, and wholly of grace, God effectually calls all those predestinated unto life and translates them from sin and death to grace and salvation.
2. Although others may experience some common operations of the Spirit, only the elect, including infants, truly come to Christ and are saved.
Chapter XI Of Justification
1. God freely justifies the elect by imputing to them the obedience and satisfaction of Christ.
2. Faith, which is the gift of God, is the alone instrument of justification.		Saving Faith is allegiance.
3. Although they may suffer the consequences of their sins in this life, those who are justified can never fall from the state of justification.
Chapter XII Of Adoption
By the grace of adoption, all those who are justified are made the children of God and fully enjoy all accompanying benefits.
Chapter XIII Of Sanctification
1. Upon regeneration, sin's dominion is broken and a process begins whereby the lusts of the flesh are gradually overcome.		Can a Christian be Perfect?
2. This process is incomplete in this life and remnants of sin remain; nevertheless, the working of the Spirit of Christ enables the regenerate to overcome and experience growth in his pursuit of holiness.		THE PERFECT CLUB
Chapter XIV Of Saving Faith
1. The Spirit of Christ is responsible for the faith whereby the elect are enabled to believe and be saved.		Saving Faith is allegiance.
2. The principal acts of this saving faith are accepting, receiving and resting upon Christ alone for salvation.
Chapter XV Of Repentance unto Life
1. Repentance, which is an act of God's free grace, occurs when a sinner turns from his sin to God and, thereafter, determines to live according to His commandments.
2. A general repentance is not satisfactory; we are to repent of particular sins particularly and, if necessary, by a private or public confession, declare our repentance to those that are offended.
Chapter XVI Of Good Works
1. The Word of God alone determines what constitutes good works.		The Origin of Greasy Grace
2. The good works of believers, which are evidences of true faith, are produced by the Spirit of Christ.
3. Good works, although essential, do not merit pardon of sin.		Failure to do a good work is sin. Doing a good work after you sin is simply doing what you should have done anyway. It doesn't erase the previous failure to do a good work. No amount of good works can erase even one sin. Luke 17:10
4. Even though the good works produced by the Spirit are defiled by the believer's imperfection, they are, nevertheless, accepted in Christ.
Chapter XVII Of the Perseverance of the Saints
1. The elect, due to the immutability of God's decree, will persevere to the end and be eternally saved.
2. The elect may, for a time, fall into grievous sins and suffer all the miseries which accompany such behavior.
Chapter XVIII Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation
1. Believers in the Lord Jesus can be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace.
2. This assurance rests upon God's promises, the evidences of His grace and the inward testimony of the Spirit.
3. Although the assurance of believers may be shaken, in due time, it will be revived.
Chapter XIX Of the Law of God
		As I mentioned above, I believe God's Law gives a practical blueprint for every area of life, and that following this blueprint is in many ways more important than many "doctrinal" disputes.
1. The law given to Adam, by which he and his posterity were bound to absolute obedience, continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness even after the fall and was delivered by God in the form of the ten commandments.		The difference between freedom and tyranny is God's Law. The difference between prosperity and poverty is God's Law. Every society that repudiates "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" ends up in poverty under tyranny. I am a strong proponent of "Theonomy." I don't agree with every jot and tittle of a book by that title, but I am a strong proponent of God's Law. The Ten Commandments are a summary of laws which made America a great place to live.
2. In addition to this moral law, God gave the people of Israel ceremonial laws, all of which are abrogated under the new testament, and judicial laws, which expired with that nation.		We are still obligated to obey the "ceremonial laws." These laws can only be obeyed in Christ. (Christ is the Lamb, His people are the Temple, etc.)
3. Although the judicial laws expired, the general equity of these statutes remains applicable.		This is dangerous phraseology. Every one of "the judicial laws" is binding in the appropriate fact pattern (situation). The Myth of "The Judicial Law"
4. God's law reveals His will and our duty and is, therefore, of great use to believers, as well as to others as a rule of life.		The Bible is a blueprint for all humanity, whether Christian or not.
Chapter XX Of Christian Liberty and Liberty of Conscience
1. Freedom from the guilt and dominion of sin, the wrath of God, the sting of death, etc. have all been purchased for believers by Christ.		Can a Christian be Perfect?
2. God alone is Lord of the conscience so that the believer is free from man-made rules and regulations.
3. Christian liberty is no pretense for sin.
Chapter XXI Of Religious Worship, and the Sabbath Day
1. The only acceptable way of worshiping God is that given in the Scriptures and requires the mediation of Christ.
2. The ordinary parts of worship include prayer, the reading of the Scriptures, the sound preaching and conscionable hearing of the Word, the singing of psalms and the proper administration of the sacraments (to these may be added oaths, vows, fastings and thanksgivings upon special occasions).
3. According to the commandment of God, which binds all men in all ages, one day in seven is to be kept holy unto Him during which men are to engage in the worship of God and the performance of deeds of necessity and mercy.		I am agnostic on the issue of one-in-seven rest-days.
Chapter XXII Of Lawful Oaths and Vows
1. An oath involves calling upon God, whose name ought to be used with all fear and reverence, to witness an assertion or promise.		Oaths in the Bible The United States requires Americans to take an oath of infidelity.
2. A vow, which is to be made to God alone and which must be in accordance with the Word, may be used to express thankfulness or to obtain what we want.		Did Christ forbid the taking of all oaths?
Chapter XXIII Of the Civil Magistrate
1. Civil magistrates have been ordained by God for the defense and encouragement of good and the punishment of evil.		This is unquestionably one of the most controversial parts of "my credo." I believe in "the Free Market." Maybe you say you do too. I believe in pure laissez-faire capitalism: 100% capitalism, 0% socialism. I'll bet you don't. I believe all forms of socialism are immoral. If you're like most Americans, you believe some forms of socialism are acceptable, even necessary. I don't believe any acts of theft or murder can be justified by majority vote. This means that I am technically an "anarchist" (or "anarcho-capitalist"). Christian anti-anarchism is a contradiction in terms. During the 20th century more than 10,000 people were legally murdered each and every single day (on average) by civil magistrates around the world. All of these civil governments -- including that of the United States -- are overtly hostile to Biblical Christianity, and should be abolished entirely. I realize that this position sounds nutty for a Christian. But nowhere in the Bible does God command human beings to form "the State," and everything "the State" does is a violation of God's Law. There is no legitimate function of "the civil magistrate" which God prohibits "the Free Market" from undertaking. It's time for a paradigm shift. God "ordains" evil. The State is evil. Romans 13 Anarcho-Calvinism Those three links contain links to hundreds of webpages. This is, in my view, the most significant issue of our day. The issue is capitalism vs. socialism, life or death. Very few Christians understand how God can create an orderly, prosperous, and peaceful society without a Caesar or a Pharaoh.
2. Although civil magistrates are forbidden to encroach upon the authority of the Church, they are obligated to protect the Church so that she may freely discharge her duties, without giving preference to any particular denomination of Christians.
3. The people are obligated to pray for and obey the magistrates regardless of the magistrates' religious orientation.
Chapter XXIV Of Marriage and Divorce
1. Marriage, which is to be between one man and one woman, was ordained for the mutual help of husband and wife.		I generally agree with Bill Gothard on courtship, marriage and divorce.
2. It is the duty of the godly to avoid being unequally yoked with the wicked in marriage.
3. The bond of marriage may not be legitimately dissolved except in cases of adultery or wilful desertion.
Chapter XXV Of the Church
1. The invisible Church is composed of the whole number of the elect; the visible Church is composed of all those who profess the true religion, along with their children.
2. It is the duty of the visible Church to gather and perfect the saints.		While I can agree with this summary, "the devil is in the details." This section says, "The visible Church . . . is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ...." This is very dangerous.
3. The purity of particular Churches is determined by the manner in which they handle the Gospel, administer the sacraments and perform public worship.		During my life, twice, I attended a weeknight "Bible Study" that decided to become a "church." I think that was a mistake. Many a "Bible Study" will allow me to attend. Not a single "church" on planet earth will. Even if it's the same people. Being a "church" makes people do strange things.
4. Jesus Christ is the alone head of the Church.
		I disagree with nothing thus far stated (in the summary at left), but our meanings diverge significantly. I am for all intents and purposes "anti-church."

Chapter XXVI Of the Communion of Saints
1. The saints share in Christ's graces, sufferings, death, resurrection and glory; likewise, they share in each other's gifts and graces and are obligated to pursue their mutual edification.
2. The saints' communion with Christ does not make them partakers of the substance of the Godhead; nor does their communion with one another set aside the right to the private ownership of goods.		True, but a society where everyone is jealously guarding "the right to the private ownership of good" may not have any scent of the "koinonia" spoken of in the New Testament. See "communism" below.
It would be fair to say that I am in substantial disagreement with the remainder of the Confession.
Chapter XXVII Of the Sacraments
1. Sacraments are signs and seals of the covenant of grace which represent Christ and His benefits to believers.
2. The efficacy of a sacrament depends solely upon the work of the Spirit and the word of institution.
3. Only two sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, have been ordained by Christ in the Gospel.		Both baptism and passover were old testament ordinances.
{4} There be only two sacraments: neither of which may be dispensed by any, but by a minister of the Word lawfully ordained		Baptism and passover were properly administered house-by-house without a seminary-trained "ordained" clergyman.
Chapter XXVIII Of Baptism
1. Through the sacrament of baptism, which signifies the engrafting of the believer into Christ, and which is rightly administered by the pouring or sprinkling of water, the party is admitted into the visible Church.		Immersion was not Biblical. (Heb. 9:10,13,19,21)
2. All who profess faith in Christ, and their infant children, are to be baptized.		Paedobaptism is more Biblical than professors'-only baptism.
3. Even though grace and salvation are not inseparably attached to the sacrament of baptism nor to the moment of its administration, that which is signified will be conferred by the Holy Spirit to all to whom it is due at the appointed time.
Chapter XXIX Of the Lord's Supper
1. The sacrament of the Lord's Supper was instituted by Christ Himself as a sealing ordinance and means of grace and is to be observed in His Church until the end of the age.		But when is "the end of the age?" (off-site)
2. The sacrament of the Lord's Supper reminds us of Christ's sacrifice of Himself but does not involve any real sacrifice itself.
3. The elements of bread and wine are to be set apart by the declaration of the words of institution and prayer, but are not to be worshiped or adored.
4. The doctrine of transubstantiation is contrary to the teaching of Scripture, common sense and reason.
5. Those who partake of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper in a right manner do receive and feed upon Christ crucified after a spiritual manner.		Those who deny Passover to baptized children are illogical.
Chapter XXX Of Church Censures
1. Jesus Christ has established a government for His Church in the hands of officers who have the power to grant or deny admission to the kingdom.		We are all priests and kings
2. Church censures, consisting of admonition, suspension and excommunication, serve to reclaim erring brethren, deter others from similar offences and maintain the purity of the Gospel and the Church.
Chapter XXXI Of Synods and Councils
1. Synods and councils ought to be convened occasionally as the good of the Church requires.
2. The determinations of synods and councils, which are ecclesiastical in nature, ought to be received as long as they are in agreement with the Word of God; however, it should be remembered that all such assemblies are subject to error.		Can Believers Criticize Church Councils?
Chapter XXXII Of the State of Men after Death, and of the Resurrection of the Dead
1. At the time of death, the body begins to decay, but the soul, being immortal, returns immediately to God whereupon the righteous are received into heaven and the wicked are cast into hell.		I am agnostic on matters pertaining to the individual after death. I trust God to be both merciful and just.
2. At the last day, those who are alive shall be changed and the souls of the dead shall be reunited to their bodies; the unjust to dishonor and the just to honor.
Chapter XXXIII Of the Last Judgment
1. On an appointed day, God will judge the world, including apostate angels, by Jesus Christ who will require an account of every thought, word and deed.		I am agnostic on this issue, especially as regards timing. I disagree with the application of several verses used to support these ideas.
2. The purpose of this day is for the manifestation of God's mercy, in the salvation of the elect, and of His justice, in the damnation of the reprobate.		Preterism

Why I Cannot "Attend Church"

There isn't an entity calling itself a "church" anywhere on planet earth that wants me within 100 miles of its front door.

I've shared the biographical information below to a number of church pastors, and they have told me bluntly, "Stay away from my church."

Let me spin this as positively as I can:

1. I believe in God.
2. I believe the Bible is the Word of God.
3. I love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.
4. I enthusiastically agree with the first 18 chapters of the Westminster Confession of faith. The Larger Catechism asks, 
        Q. 5. What do the Scriptures principally teach?
        A. The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.
   What the Scriptures require as the duty of man is found in the exposition of the Ten Commandments in questions 91ff. I enthusiastically agree with most of this section of the Catechism, as the links in the next two points will attest:
5. I believe God says "Thou shalt not kill."
6. I believe God says "Thou shalt not steal"
7. I believe God says that if someone hurts you or takes your stuff, you should leave vengeance to God
8. I believe what the New Testament authors believed about the Second Coming of Christ.
9. I support Capitalism (a Freed Market), not Socialism (a controlled market).
10. I believe "the Gospel"

Now let me spin this more transparently, more realistically, more offensively.

These propositions might seem at first glance to be perfectly reasonable and perfectly acceptable to any church. But if you think about them, they are astonishing, and then they are offensive. Most pastors don't want their congregations thinking about these things too much. They want their congregations to feel good.

Not only are my views considered "heretical," I've been told by many people that I'm not even a Christian.

What's worse, I love to spread my ideas. I have thousands of blog posts and webpages like this one. I like getting into conversations with people and promoting my "heresies." I'm thinking about starting an online university: Vine & Fig Tree University.

I would love to get everyone in every church enrolled in Vine & Fig Tree University and convert everyone in every church to my point of view.

There isn't an entity calling itself a "church" anywhere on planet earth that wants you to enroll in Vine & Fig Tree University.

Much of the following is taken from the Vine & Fig Tree University website.

At Vine & Fig Tree University we're trying to duplicate the now-extinct Harvard University -- a Bible-based Christian university founded by the New England Puritans to promote the Christianity of the Protestant Reformation in the New World -- which is now an atheistic university at war with the original goals of Harvard.

Graduates of today's government-run "public" schools have been brainwashed into believing that Harvard's original Christian worldview is not as good as today's secular worldview. Nobody wants an education approved by the Protestant Reformers and the New England Puritans. Nobody is searching in Google to find a university that teaches what Harvard's Founders wanted students to learn in 1636 -- and nobody knows what Harvard expected high school applicants to know before their first college class.

But at Vine & Fig Tree University we believe that Harvard's Founders were not perfectly consistent with the teachings of the Bible. So we seek to reform the reformers. We want to be more pure than the Puritans. But our reforms are viewed as heretical, and we only incur additional wrath from those who already oppose the original Founders of Harvard.

After 1647, students wishing to enroll in Harvard were required to give their assent to the Westminster Standards in order to be admitted as a student. Probably nobody who will be starting as a Freshman at Harvard this Fall has studied the Westminster Standards, much less agrees with them. Applicants to Harvard in the early 1600's had a much higher level of academic attainment than graduates of atheistic public schools -- victims of educational malpractice -- in the early 2000's. And high school students in the 1600's already had a Biblical worldview before their first day of college.

The Westminster Standards

The Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms were written in the 1640's. The reflect the growth of Protestant theology that began in 1517 and continued under men like John Calvin.

John Frame says

The assembly’s Confession of Faith, completed in December, 1646, is the last of the classic Reformed confessions and by far the most influential in the English-speaking world. Though it governed the Church of England only briefly, it has been widely adopted (sometimes with amendments) by British and American Presbyterian bodies as well as by many Congregational and Baptist churches.

B.B. Warfield, professor at Princeton in the late 1800's, wrote of the Westminster Standards,

[T]hey are the final crystallization of the elements of evangelical religion, after the conflicts of sixteen hundred years. . . . [T]hey are the richest and most precise and best guarded statement ever penned of all that enters into evangelical religion . . . .

Richard Gardiner, in his impressive collection of "Primary Source Documents Pertaining to Early American History," lists many sources which introduce the average Secular Humanist to the now-unknown religious foundations of American Revolution and Government. Among these sources are the Westminster Standards. Gardiner says of them:

The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) In addition to being the decree of Parliament as the standard for Christian doctrine in the British Kingdom, it was adopted as the official statement of belief for the colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Although slightly altered and called by different names, it was the creed of Congregationalist, Baptist, and Presbyterian Churches throughout the English speaking world. Assent to the Westminster Confession was officially required at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Princeton scholar, Benjamin Warfield wrote: "It was impossible for any body of Christians in the [English] Kingdoms to avoid attending to it." The Westminster Catechism (1646) Second only to the Bible, the "Shorter Catechism" of the Westminster Confession was the most widely published piece of literature in the pre-revolutionary era in America. It is estimated that some five million copies were available in the colonies. With a total population of only four million people in America at the time of the Revolution, the number is staggering. The Westminster Catechism was not only a central part of the colonial educational curriculum, learning it was required by law. Each town employed an officer whose duty was to visit homes to hear the children recite the Catechism. The primary schoolbook for children, the New England Primer, included the Catechism.  Daily recitations of it were required at these schools. Their curriculum included memorization of the Westminster Confession and the Westminster Larger Catechism. There was not a person at Independence Hall in 1776 who had not been exposed to it, and most of them had it spoon fed to them before they could walk.

The word "Theocracy" is a frightening boogeyman in our day. Many people are disturbed by the idea of a government official entering a home and dictating what children should learn when it comes to religion. Harvard University and the Westminster Standards were both designed to promote a Christian Theocracy. Neither one embraced the modern concept of "separation of church and state," which more accurately means "separation of God (religion, Christianity) and Government." Harvard/Westminster stood for the proposition that both Church and State must be "under God." Vine & Fig Tree University questions whether "the State" -- which is a Monopoly of Violence -- can ever truly be "under God," that is, obedient to God's Commandments. Similarly concerning the institution called "the church." The Westminster Assembly, predominantly Presbyterian, was strongly opposed to Roman Catholicism, yet in many ways is still very similar to Roman Catholicism in structure and power-dynamics. John Milton said "New Presbyter is but Old Priest writ large."

The Bible says all believers are priests and kings:

Revelation 1:6 
Jesus Christ has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Revelation 5:9-10
And have redeemed us to God by Your blood And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.

Roman Catholics claimed to have priests; Harvard and Westminster denied this.
Harvard's most notable graduates in its first 200 years -- Samuel Adams, John Hancock, John Adams, etc. -- denied the claim of "the divine right of kings."
Vine & Fig Tree University contends that we are all priests and kings, and nobody is a priest or a king.
Vine & Fig Tree University denies the modern concept of "separation of church and state." We believe in "the abolition of church and state." We believe in an orderly self-governing society, and a truly religious society, without the institutions of "church" and "state."

Both Harvard and Westminster believed in the institutions of "church" and "state" because "the church fathers" did. Not everything "the church fathers" believed came from the Bible. "The church fathers" believed many things because Aristotle and Greco-Roman humanism taught them to believe these things. One of the primary purposes of Vine & Fig Tree University is to strip away Greco-Roman humanism and go back to the Scriptures. At many points the Protestant Reformers and the New England Puritans wanted to "reform" and "purify" in this way, but they were products of their time.

Here are the chapters of the Confession:

The Puritan Church-State of Massachusetts created Harvard in 1636, and in 1647 created "public schools." The purpose of both was to promote widespread understanding of the Bible. Bible-educated citizens would then help create and maintain a Christian Theocracy. The Founders of Harvard believed that it was necessary to create a "civil government" to promote religion and civic order. They did not understand how religion and social order could be promoted by a Market Freed from threats of government force. Vine & Fig Tree University exists to promote this "paradigm shift." It will not take thick textbooks and long classroom lectures to do this. It simply requires taking the most basic precepts of the Bible seriously and consistently. This is not complicated or "tricky." It doesn't require high levels of intelligence. It takes high levels of ethics. Just be a consistently moral person, and ignore the "experts" who say the Bible is outdated or "utopian."

You will not graduate from Vine & Fig Tree University unless you can assent to the following:

These propositions might seem at first glance to be perfectly reasonable and perfectly acceptable to any church.

But Vine & Fig Tree University pursues these doctrines with relentless logical and Biblical consistency.

If you think about these doctrines, and practice or meditate on them with logical consistency, they are astonishing, and then they are offensive. Most pastors don't want their congregations thinking about these things too much. They want their congregations to feel good.

If you take these doctrines seriously, you will be considered a "heretic." I've been told by many people that I'm not even a Christian because I believe these things.

Let's think about these simple propositions like Bereans (Acts 17:11). You'll see why no pastor wants a Vine & Fig Tree University graduate anywhere near his church.

Here is the foundational text for Vine & Fig Tree University:

Here are the key concepts in Micah's prophecy:

Vine & Fig Tree

Let's compare these themes from Micah's prophecy with the chapters of the Westminster Standards.

Micah's Prophecy	Westminster Standards	Vine & Fig Tree University
"It shall come to pass"	Chapter 3 - God’s Eternal Decree	The Sovereignty of God - Calvinism/Predestination How does Micah know what will "come to pass?" Answer: God told him (see "Bibliolatry" below). How does God know what will "come to pass?" Answer: He predestined it. God is omniscient, and knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10), because the future has already been created. When is your birthday? Why did you choose to be born on that day? Did God ask your permission to be born on that day? There is no such thing as "free will." So you must face this question: Were you brought into existence by the meaningless, impersonal "laws of physics," or were you brought into existence by a personal God who is Love? Some say that predestination "makes man a robot." But you and I both know that we are not robots. We were created in the Image of God. We have the capacity for reason, to plan for the future, to compose and appreciate symphonies. We understand God's Commandments, and we have a moral obligation to obey them. We know that as we get in the car and drive to the prostitute's house, that we should turn the car around. We know that God is just to hold us responsible for our actions. In the end, "every knee will bow and every tongue will confess" that we made the choice to sin and God is just and fair to hold us accountable. These things cannot be said about the other animals. Omnipotence is the basis for omniscience. God knew what every atom in the universe would do before He created them, because He created everything that way. Nobody was there to force God to create the world in a way God did not want it to be. God knew what He was doing. God is Sovereign, but God is also Love. This has tremendous implications for our actions in history. Calvinism: "Liberty Under God" John Calvin: Founder of America Sovereignty and Optimism Providence The Declaration of Independence (1776) says that those who conform their lives to "The Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" can have "a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence." Protection is a personal act of love. "Providence" is the opposite of "deism." Prayer = anti-deism Sovereignty Authority Victory Power Kingdom Christmas vs. Rapture Futurists say that "prophecy" reveals a grim future. War, Great Tribulation, the Antichrist, and Armageddon are all predestined (though not all futurists would use that word -- but what's the difference between "prophesied" and "predestined?"). Micah does not say that tribulation and annihilation has been predestined, but a Vine & Fig Tree world has. PredestinationOnline.com Audio
	Chapter 2 - God, and of the Holy Trinity	The Sovereignty of God I believe in God. There are a lot of people in churches on Sunday morning who say "I believe in God," but what evidence is there of this on Monday through Saturday? I believe God is the creator. The Bible says God created everything there is, probably no more than 10,000 years ago. (Yikes! A "creationist!" A "fundamentalist!") There is an unbridgeable gap between the Creator and the creature (Romans 1:25). The Westminster Confession and Catechisms set forth a "Calvinist" doctrine of God. Many people hate that term. I believe in "the Five Points of Calvinism." Calvin would not have let me in his church. Calvin would have put me to death. If I were to describe what I think God is like, most people would say they don't believe in that kind of God. And they're even more offended that I try to impress this "Calvinist" theology into every area of my life, even "secular" areas, including Monday through Saturday. Predestination Before the Creator created all that is, the Creator knew the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10; Revelation 1:8; Revelation 21:6, 13). God knows the future because God created it. The future has already been created. This is called "predestination," meaning the the destination of the creation was designed and set in motion before ("pre") it was even created. The path of every molecule and sub-atomic particle in the universe was set in motion, and is carefully and lovingly conducted by God through history to its predestined end. The thoughts I think and the feelings I feel are wave-particles of energy and chemicals that travel across the synapses of my brain and through my heart and "reins." All predestined by God. Some say my belief makes man a "robot." But God did not create man as a robot. You and I both know that we are not "robots." God created man in His Image. That means when I think and plan, when I paint a picture or compose a symphony, when I build a log cabin or a skyscraper that can house 25,000 people, I am engaged in the wonder-filled task of exercising dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:26-28), something animals do not do. No matter how glorious I think man is, by virtue of his being created in the Image of God, there are those who feel that my conception of God "violates" human "free will." "Arminians" call me a "Calvinist." They don't want me in their churches. Conventional "Calvinists" call me other terms, but join the Arminians in ordering me far from their churches.
	Chapter 9 Free Will	The Myth of "Free Will" Jesus Wrote the Bible Using Human Penmen
		That's a place to transition to the second of my propositions. I believe that if you believe in "free will," you do not believe that the Bible is the Word of God. I say that not on the grounds that the Bible teaches something other than "free will," but because if God cannot "violate" man's "free will," there cannot be a Bible at all. So let's consider what the Bible says about the Bible.
Micah 1:1 The Word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. Micah 4:4 For the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. Micah 4:6 “In that day,” says the Lord,	Chapter 1 - the Holy Scripture	The Westminster Confession of Faith begins with a chapter on the Bible. And rightly so. Everything taught at Vine & Fig Tree University is grounded in the Bible because the Bible is the Word of God. The Bible is the Word of God, written by the will of God If you believe in "free will," or that God cannot "violate" man's "free will," then you cannot logically believe that the Bible is the Word of God. The words in the Bible were written by the hands of human beings, but I believe the Bible is the Word of God. God speaks through those human words. This says something     • about the words,     • something about the human authors of the words,     • as well as something about the God of the Bible. God wrote the Bible using "human pens." God made their hands move the way He wanted them to move. In the Bible, the will of God is sovereign over the will of man. 1 Peter 1:21 says For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Of course, it was the "will" of Moses and Isaiah and Paul and other authors to write down words. Moses wrote what God told him to write, but perhaps Moses would say he wrote those words "of my own free will." Nobody pointed a gun at Moses' head and forced him to write. But what Peter says is controversial. Even though Moses and other Biblical authors freely wrote the words they intended to write, God was doing something through them and the words they wrote. They did not write those words solely by their own "free will." Their hands moved the way God willed them to move. It's true, we can tell the differences between the words Moses wrote, the words Luke wrote, the words John wrote, and the words Paul wrote. They all had their own individual personalities and writing styles. But the men who wrote the words of Scripture had their lives — their parents, training, and life experiences — all orchestrated by God so that — guided by the Holy Spirit — they would write the exact words that God wanted to be written so that God could communicate exactly what He wanted to communicate to the human race. Their words are God's words. God's will trumps their will. Paul told Timothy that God "breathed out" His words through these human authors (2 Timothy 3:16, [theópneustos (Strong's #2315, from 2316 /theós, "God" and 4154 /pnéō, "breathe out"]). To say that the Bible is the Word of God is to say that God's will is sovereign over the will of man. Some people find this deeply offensive.  God made the mouths of Moses, David, and Isaiah speak the words God wanted spoken. God made the hands of Matthew, Paul, and John write the words God wanted written. If God did not overrule the "free" and fallible will of man, how did their will to speak and write beget the infallible Word of God? I don't use the term "free will," because secular philosophers use that term to suggest that if there is a god, such a god doesn't know what's going on, and is constantly being surprised at what the will of man does. So I would never say that I have "free will" and can do something that will catch God off-guard. God knows what I think and what I feel and what I will do because He predestined it all. But I am not a rock, or an insect, or an animal, or a robot. I am a human being created in the Image of God. Amazing. Some will say that since God predestines even sin, and then punishes sinners for the sin God predestined them to commit, it would be better if sinners had never been born. They had no "free will." They had no choice. "That's not fair." And if it's not "fair," it can't be true. This claim is logical. If a man has no free will, and gets punished for what God predestined him to to, it would be better for him if he had never been born. But Mark 14:21 says exactly that: God predestined Jesus to be sinfully put to death: "The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had never been born.” That's pretty scary. Judas had no choice in whether he would be born. God created Judas without asking Judas for permission, and predestined Judas to commit a terrible sin (John 19:11). But Judas was created in the Image of God. All sinners are created in the Image of God. And in the end, every knee will bow and every sinner will admit that God's Judgment is fair (Isaiah 45:23; Romans 14:11; Philippians 2:10-11). All sinners will say "I admit. I sinned." All sinners will admit that God is just. Even though He predestined them to sin (Romans 9; Isaiah 10). Christians who oppose the Sovereignty of God and uphold the "free will" of man claim that predestination "makes man a puppet." But as I said, man is clearly not a puppet; man is created in the Image of God, and we all know this. But the Bible agrees that God's sovereignty makes man a "puppet" of God's decree. The Bible describes man not as a "puppet," however, but as a bucket of water. Well, not a bucket, but a river of water. Proverbs 21:1 The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord,  Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes. How is this not like being "a puppet?" Is a meandering river created in the Image of God? How is the opponent of God's Sovereignty not making an accusation against God? "Bibliolatry" I believe the Bible is the Word of God. Jesus is the Word of God incarnate; the Bible is the Word of God inscriptured. Some people call this "Bibliolotry." I worship the Bible. That alarms nearly every church I know. This claim (the Bible is the Word of God) is either true or false. If true, it demands your full and immediate attention. If false, then the prophets are liars and the Bible is evil. But if false, there is no such thing as "evil." The universe is meaningless, impersonal, and without moral values. One man's "child molestation" is another man's "sexual orientation." If you accept the values of Vine & Fig Tree rather than the values of Harvard-educated dictators around the world, then it is clear that the Bible has been the most important book in the history of the human race. It has been the blueprint for "civilization." Governments that ban the Bible have been savage tyrannies, their people impoverished and uneducated. The Bible is a textbook for every subject of human thought and action. The Bible: The Word of God The Bible claims to be the Word of God. It claims that God speaks to human beings. It claims that God used human beings the way I am using a keyboard as I write this. Let's consider first the claim that God speaks, and the Bible is God speaking to us. If this claim is false, and the universe is just a meaningless, accidental result of molecules bumping into each other for endless eons, then there is no difference between a nurse and a serial rapist. Both are doing what they like, and both enjoy whatever their DNA makes them enjoy. If this claim is true -- if the Bible is God Himself speaking to us -- it doesn't seem like very many church-goers are listening very seriously. Imagine that a UFO lands on the White House lawn, and an extraterrestrial being hands the President a Peace Treaty. The ET says, "Read this Treaty. It tells you how to cure cancer, end war, obtain free energy, eliminate the threat of global warming, and extend lifespans by hundreds of years. If you agree to abide by its terms, our race will help your race. If you do not agree, we will destroy you. We will wait right here for your answer." Network television will have their cameras at the White House 24/7. Commentators will be speculating endlessly about what the extraterrestrial Treaty says, and whether or not the President will accept their terms. People will cancel vacations and having children, breathlessly waiting for the decision, knowing their entire future hangs in the balance. If there are any ET's in the universe, they were created by the God of the Bible. His Word is more important than the word of any ET.  But we spend more time watching CNN or FoxNews than we spend listening to the Bible, even though the news channels aren't covering anything as interesting as a UFO on the White House lawn. For some, "news" doesn't get our attention as much as sports, soaps, or celebrities. All the while, we have a book from the Creator of the universe sitting un-read on a shelf next to the Flat Screen TV. What the heck is wrong with us? The Bible is a Peace Treaty -- a Covenant -- that God is willing to enter into with those who have been in rebellion against Him. The Treaty calls for unconditional surrender on our part. The Treaty promises blessing -- "salvation" -- on God's part. The "Berean" Spirit Here is perhaps the #1 reason no church wants to be infiltrated by someone who believes the Bible was actually written by God. Acts 17 11Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, in that they received the Word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. The Bereans are commended for questioning the church. They heard a message from the Apostles and checked what they heard with the Scriptures. There is no entity on planet earth who wants their members questioning what the church has taught and comparing church doctrine with the Bible. Especially regarding the "heretical" ideas I'll be raising below. Even though Protestant churches champion "sola Scriptura" and the "priesthood of all believers." They don't really mean it. They don't like Bereans. audio The Bible is our starting point I am a "Bible-believing" Christian. Feel free to accuse me of engaging in bibliolatry, fundamentalism, extremism, creationism, Calvinism, Theonomy, etc. Guilty as charged. Acts 17:10-12 is one of three texts worth studying: Now these [The Bereans] were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness of the mind, searching the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so. The Bereans appeared to be like modern libertarians, with their bumper-sticker that says "QUESTION AUTHORITY." The Apostles gave them the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but the Bereans didn't just take the Apostles' word for it, but checked what they were told against a higher authority, the Scripture. The Bereans are more dogmatic authoritarians than those who mindlessly accept the word of clergy or creeds. Additionally, the Bereans studied the Bible "daily." The verses on that link show that daily engagement with the Bible is an imperative. This attitude makes one a better Christian, as seen in our second text. Just as iron sharpens iron, friends sharpen the minds of each other. Proverbs 27:17 My goal in this article is to be your "friend." I hope you'll be my friend as well, and challenge my thinking in a loving way. I am not against "authorities" or "experts." I rely on them and quote them. An "expert" can be your friend and sharpen you, but you might have to pay the expert ("mentor," "professor" "seminary"). This article is free. May you be sharpened. May we be friends. Third text: Proverbs 18:17 "The first to state his case seems right until another comes forward and examines him." What you learned in church seems right to you. Wait until you compare it with what the Bible says.
	Chapter 7 God’s Covenant with Man	Covenant as Treaty of Unconditional Surrender How to Become a Christian by Signing God's Treaty of Unconditional Surrender Justification by Allegiance
"in the last days" And it will come about in the last days That the mountain of the House of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains And it will be raised above the hills	Chapter 32 - the State of Men after Death, and of the Resurrection of the Dead Chapter 33 - the Last Judgment	Eschatology One of the most important issues in the last 100 years is "futurism" vs. "preterism," or "pessimillennialism" vs. "optimillennialism." The Westminster Confession relegates eschatology to the last two chapters of the Confession. But we believe the subject is extremely important in our day, because the subject is plagued by errors, and these errors are popularly believed and have a global impact. Millions of copies of books speculating about "the last days" have been sold in this generation. Everything about Micah's “Vine & Fig Tree” prophecy is undermined by today's erroneous eschatologies. They all deny that it is even possible -- much less mandatory -- for us to beat our "swords into plowshares" and pursue the fulfillment of Micah's “Vine & Fig Tree” prophecy. Eschatology is critical. (We wouldn't necessarily place the subject at the very top of the list, but it occurs right off the bat in Micah's prophecy, so here it is. But it deserves higher placement than the last two chapters of the Confession.)  Micah says his prophecy will be fulfilled in "the last days." What does this mean? Commentators suggest two meanings: "The latter days" means "days in the distant future." The Apostles, writing in the New Testament, repeatedly state that they are living in "the last days." Prophecies like Micah's (e.g., Joel's prophecy in Acts 2) which said they would be fulfilled in "the last days" are said by the Apostles to be seeing fulfillment in their day. Many scholars believe they are referring to "the last days" of the Old Covenant. The Apostles were living in "the last days" of the Old Covenant and the first days of the New Covenant. I believe "the last days" of the Old Covenant are now in our past. We are not now living in "the last days" of the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant came to a definitive end in AD 70 when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed.
That the mountain of the House of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains And it will be raised above the hills	Chapter 4 Creation	Creationism The Bible says four rivers flowed out of (downhill from) Eden, indicating that Eden was on a "mountain" or elevated plateau. Ever since then, and throughout the Bible, the mountain has been a reminder of Eden. Was there actually a Garden of Eden in history? Are the first few chapters of Genesis a chronicle of history, or a "religious" poem of some kind? How would Jesus answer that question? If you can believe that Jesus rose from the dead, in violation of "scientific law," why can't you believe God created all things a few thousand years ago? Politicians who feel threatened by the Bible, seeing it as an "anarchist manifesto" want you to believe the Bible is "pre-scientific" and cannot be trusted. Karl Marx said his "scientific socialism" was grounded in history. Jesus grounded His teachings in the history in Genesis. Marxists and Christians have very different views of history. One of the biggest tests of Biblical character is the ability to stand against "the science" of evolution. "Listen to the science" we are constantly told. Is your faith informed and able to stand against the crowd? Evolutionism is not science; it is a religion; it is the religion of archism. It is one example of a "Mass Formation Psychosis." ("Archism" is the belief that members of a ruling class have the right to impose their will on others by force or threats of violence. Jesus said His followers are not to be archists "like the kings of the gentiles" (Mark 10:42-45). Jesus is the One True Archist The New Jerusalem is a New Creation. Micah 4:1-2 says Jerusalem (Mt. Zion, the mountain of the House [temple] of the Lord) will be "established." This is actually the creation of a New Jerusalem. This is the restoration of the conditions that originally existed in the Garden of Eden. Evolutionary premillennialism sees a vast past and no future. It's all going to end in our day. Creationist preterism sees creation in a recent past, re-creation in Christ "the Last Adam," and a vast future building of the Kingdom of God (the New Jerusalem) ahead of us. Planet earth is a miracle, not an accident. Supernatural design, supernatural creation, supernatural administration. There is no such thing as "nature." Creating/Building the New Jerusalem will be a supernatural act, but we (you, I, and all God's Image-Bearers) still have moral obligations to expend energy on behalf of this work of edification. We cannot be passive. But in the end, Christ gets all the credit and glory. Isaiah 65:17-18 17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. 18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, And her people a joy. Hebrews 12 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
	Chapter 6 the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment Thereof	Thesis 13: The Fall of Man Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and the Punishment thereof, part 1 Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and the Punishment thereof, part 2 Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and the Punishment thereof, part 3 Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and the Punishment thereof, part 4 The Depravity of Man The Fall of Man -- the Desire to "“To Be As Gods” -- “Knowing Good and Evil”  To build the Kingdom of Man without working (playing God, oppressing others) Thesis 12: The Fall Of The Angels
That the mountain of the House of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains And it will be raised above the hills	Chapter 25 the Church Chapter 26 the Communion of Saints Chapter 30 Church Censures Chapter 31 Synods and Councils	"The House of the Lord" - Ecclesiology In the Old Testament, "The House of the Lord" was the temple in Jerusalem. The temple was where God dwelled. But that temple was destroyed in AD 70. So what is "the House of the Lord" in our day? Catholics might say "the Vatican." Protestants might say "the local church." The Apostle Paul says Christians are the new temple of God. Ephesians 2:19-22 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 6:16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.” 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. Most Christians reject a "preterist" eschatology because of what "the church" teaches. But if preterism is true, it revolutionizes ecclesiology. More on "Church" Why I Do Not "Attend Church" Why I Do Not Attend Church (same title, but different content) Should A Christian "Attend Church"? The Greek Origin of "The Sermon" Is "The Institutional Church" a Part of "The Visible Church?" Community Bible Church at Integrity Hills
	Chapter 21 Religious Worship, and the Sabbath Day	The Day of Rest is the seventh day. "The Lord's Day" is the first day/eighth day, commemorating the resurrection. The two concepts are distinct, but too often confused. The fourth of the ten commandments is to work six days and rest on the seventh. The fourth commandment does not say to work five days, rest on the seventh, and "go to church" on the eighth day. Clergymen emphasize the importance of "going to church" on Sunday, and ignore the importance of work as the main source of prosperity and government. Businesses create government because they foster habits and character which undergird order, which make profit possible.  More on "work."
	Chapter 27 the Sacraments Chapter 28 Baptism Chapter 29 the Lord’s Supper	Preterism and Sacraments I don't believe in "sacraments." These Old Testament rituals were dug up and mimicked by what we call "The Roman Catholic Church." Most Protestant churches are only partially-reformed Roman churches. What we call "the Last Supper" was Jesus observing Passover with His disciples. Jesus destroyed the temple in Jerusalem at His coming in AD 70 (see "Preterism" above).  Paul told Christians (many of whom were converts from Judaism) to continue observing Passover until Jesus comes. This made sense at the time, as Passover was closely connected with the temple. 1 Corinthians 5 6 Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore  purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.  8 Therefore let us keep the feast,  not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Luke 22 13 And they went and found it just as He had told them, and they prepared the Passover. 14 And when the hour came, He reclined at table, and the apostles with Him. 15 And He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17 And He took a cup, and when He had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. 18 For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” 1 Corinthians 10 23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread, 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, “This is My body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same way also He took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. Matthew 16 27 For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. 28 Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” First-century Christians continued to observe Passover until Christ came in the power of His Kingdom, in the lifetime of those who witnessed His First Advent, to take vengeance against those Israelites who rejected Him as their Passover Lamb. Jesus the Death Angel did not pass over Israel in AD 70. The old Israel was destroyed as the new Egypt: Revelation 11:8 And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. Jesus came in the power of a new Kingdom. The old kingdom -- the new Egypt -- was destroyed so that the New Israel -- God's Kingdom -- could be built. "Sacraments" were a part of the Old Covenant, but not the New. John the Baptist was an Old Testament prophet who foretold the coming of the Messiah and the New Covenant. Paul said he never baptized anyone (1 Corinthians 1:13-17). The Old Covenant and its sacraments were passing away (Hebrews 8:13). Most Christians see the practice of their faith occurring for one hour in a "church" building on Sunday morning. But the most important aspects of our faith should be occurring the other six days of the week.
And the peoples will stream to it. And many nations will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD And to the House of the God of Jacob		Optimillennialism: Global Hospitality and Conversion Globalism Catholicism, not Rome-ism Planetary redemption End of racism, a "mass formation psychosis." End of nationalism "Optimillennialism" Confidence in the prospects of human progress toward a Christian world. Open Borders: end of Xenophobia. Conversion of the Gentiles We have often heard that all religions are equal; we're all headed up to the top of the same mountain, just climbing along different paths. But in the last few decades, it has become obvious that one religion is not like the others, and one religion is superior to the others. Our attention has been caught by the religion of Jihadism. This religion is not going up the same mountain as those who say all religions are equal. The religion of Jihadism wants to blow-up the entire mountain with everyone on it; even if this kills the suicide bombers themselves. They don't believe in converting others to their religion by persuasion/reason, but by force. The World must be Christianized. | "All nations, all peoples" God's Creation is a universe, not a multiverse. True "diversity" means all ethnic groups are invited to become Christian Not "European," or "American," but Christian. This has been happening for two millennia. The world is not getting worse and worse. Proof: "civilization" -- the "City of God" -- Civitas Dei -- is taking over, replacing the "City of Man." No Bible College in America will admit that the world is dramatically more Christian today than it was 2,000 years ago. No Bible College in America confidently believes that the best is yet to come. Optimillennialism is optimism about the future progress of the Kingdom of God on earth. It defies entropy, and is not evolutionary. Therefore Optimillennialism depends on Creationism. Audio
	Chapter 8 Christ the Mediator Chapter 10 Effectual Calling Chapter 11 Justification Chapter 12 Adoption Chapter 13 Sanctification Chapter 14 Saving Faith Chapter 15 Repentance unto Life Chapter 16 Good Works Chapter 17 the Perseverance of the Saints Chapter 18 the Assurance of Grace and Salvation	Much of the Westminster Confession is taken up with a very narrow examination of "salvation" or "justification." It is generally related to what happens to you after you die. At Vine & Fig Tree University we take a "Theonomic" approach to "justification." Justification by Allegiance Notice that chapter 8, "Of Christ the Mediator," is not complemented with a chapter on "Christ the King." The concept is in the Westminster Standards, but buried.
That He may teach us about His ways And that we may walk in His paths." For from Zion will go forth the Law Even the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And He will judge between many peoples And render decisions for mighty, distant nations.	Chapter 19 the Law of God Chapter 20 Christian Liberty, and Liberty of Conscience	Theonomy The word "Theonomy" comes from two Greek words meaning "God's Law." It stands for the proposition that the entire Bible is the Word of God and we are to be governed by it. This is controversial because many Christians do not believe they have to obey laws in the Old Testament, and they do not believe they are obligated to obey God's commands during the work-week, but only on Sunday mornings or in their "spiritual life." We are to bring every area of life under His jurisdiction, under His Law. Isaiah 33:22 -- Jesus alone is the Christ, the Lord, the King, the Lawgiver, the Judge | "His path, the Law-Word" "Theonomy" ("God's Law") is a forbidden subject in every Bible College in America. When Americans learned the Bible in public schools (and public schools were Bible schools), America was the most prosperous, most admired nation on earth.    Now U.S. exports weapons and pornography. Law-Word Theonomy Justification by Allegiance Christian Reconstruction: Application of God's Law to Nations/Governments Laws of Nature and of Nature's God. William Blackstone said these laws are only to be found in Holy Scripture. • The God who gave you life deserves your respect • Every Word this God speaks deserves your attention/obedience • Bible is not just for "private" religion, "down in your heart" • Also for public policy • Textbook for every area Being "judgmental" vs. Hitler "Those who will not be governed by God condemn themselves to be governed by tyrants" -- William Penn Audio Micah says the law of God must be taught, and people will stream to learn God's Law. Therefore Theonomy leads to Education (#10 below). When we obey God's Law, God Governs us Theocracy = God Governs Theonomy leads to Theocracy Our moral obligation to obey God's Commandment counters those who complain that our advocacy of predestination leaves man without "free will." You are morally obligated to choose to obey God's Law. I don't know whether you have been predestined to be obedient or not. But you know what you must do, and you will eventually admit that you chose to do what you wanted to do. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that our Sovereign God is perfectly fair (Philippians 2:10; Romans 14:11). Chapter 19 of the Confession seems to endorse "Theonomy," but it actually repudiates it, and is fundamentally flawed. Section 4 of chapter 19 says: 4. To them also, as a body politic, He gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the State of that people; not obliging any other now, further than the general equity thereof may require. This is based on Greco-Roman categories, not the categories of Hebrew Law, or Biblical Law. See this: The Myth of "The Judicial Law" This has very important implications. The Duty of Man Q. 5. What do the Scriptures principally teach? A. The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man. (Westminster Larger Catechism) We live in a culture that does not want to be reminded of its duties. It prefers to talk about its "rights." I don't believe in "human rights."  I don't believe in "Justification by mere belief." I believe in Justification by Allegiance. Obedience is more important than intelligence. The word "Theocracy" comes from two Greek words meaning "God Governs." Our duty is to be governed by God. "We must obey God rather than man" (Acts 5:29). We've been trained in our secular schools to fear "Theocracy." But we're not tempted to accept an Islamic Theocracy, where Allah is our national god. We've been trained to reject a Christian Theocracy. We accept a Secular Humanist theocracy, where every man is his own god. Our job as Christians is to make the entire planet a Christocracy. Augustine wrote about the conflict between "The City of God" and the City of Man. The Westminster Catechism contain an exposition of the Law of God under the category of the Ten Commandments. This exposition is, on the whole, wonderful. If we take these three commands seriously: "Thou shalt not steal" (Exodus 20:15; Leviticus 19:11; Ephesians 4:28) "Thou shalt not kill." (Mark 10:19, quoting Exodus 20:13) leave vengeance to God (Romans 12:19) the implications are astounding. Nobody disagrees with these views in the abstract, but if I make them too practical, or apply them to the wrong people, then these views become heretical and offensive. Together these views lead me to a conclusion that everyone rejects. Passionately rejects. I used to reject it myself when I was younger. We'll consider it below.
Focus text: "He shall judge" And He will judge between many peoples And rebuke mighty, distant nations.		Theocracy / Christocracy "Theonomy" = "Theocracy" He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: 3 And He shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; The Law-Giver is our Judge and King (Isaiah 33:22). If you don't believe in Theonomy, then you don't believe Jesus is a Christ-King. He's just a homeless story-teller. He has nothing to say to Pharaoh, Caesar, Hitler, Stalin, Trump, or Biden. Jesus cannot command them to repent if there is no Theonomy. Micah is prophesying a global Theocracy. The word "Theocracy" comes from two Greek words meaning "God Governs." God "governs" us when we obey His commandments. America was originally a Theocracy. James Madison, "the Father of the Constitution," is reported to have said, We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves ... according to the Ten Commandments of God. America was originally a Christocracy. Benjamin Rush signed the Declaration of Independence and served in the Presidential administrations of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison -- each of whom came from a different political party. And of what party was Rush? I have been alternately called an aristocrat and a democrat. I am now neither. I am a Christocrat. I believe all power . . . will always fail of producing order and happiness in the hands of man. He alone Who created and redeemed man is qualified to govern him. [An Eulogium Upon Benjamin Rush, M.D. - Google Books ] Only our Redeemer should be our Ruler. America was originally a Trinitarian Christocracy. On March 6, 1799, President John Adams proclaimed a national day of prayer in which Americans would call to mind our numerous offenses against the Most High God, confess them before Him with the sincerest penitence, implore His pardoning mercy, through the Great Mediator and Redeemer, for our past transgressions, and that through the grace of His Holy Spirit we may be disposed and enabled to yield a more suitable obedience to His righteous requisitions in time to come; Everyone lives in a theocracy. Either the God of the Bible governs us, or some other god, or everyone gets to be his own god. John Adams invited us to think about a world where human law-makers are put out of business, and God's Theonomy replaces man's law-books and creates God's Theocracy. R. J. Rushdoony wrote the following: This is what John Adams, later second President of the U.S., wrote in his diary on February 22, 1756: Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience,      to temperance, frugality, and industry,      to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men;      and to piety, love and reverence towards Almighty God. What a Utopia, what a Paradise would this region be. Like others of his day, Adams was a theonomist! In principle, Adams is advocating "Theocracy." Adams is saying we should be governed by God and His Law Book, the Bible. Preterism claims that Jesus became the Christ in the past, and now IS the Christ. But to say "Jesus is the Christ" is to say that Jesus alone is the Christ. The "kings of the gentiles" (Mark 10:42-45) bitterly resent this claim. They say that John Adams, in principle, is advocating "anarchy." No, he wasn't advocating "anarchy" directly. Adams' purpose was just to praise the Bible. But nobody in government today would ever say what Adams said: We should take the Bible for our only law book. That's too "radical." It's "homophobic." Or something. Only a "domestic terrorist" would say something like this. Taking Jesus as our Messiah and the Bible as our only lawbook puts "the kings of the gentiles" out of business. Jesus can rule the nations because the Word of God is the Sword of the Lord, and is more powerful than the military sword of man: Matthew 26:52 Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Micah 4:3 and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. Hebrews 4:12 12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, Ephesians 6:17 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; Isaiah 11:4 4 But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. Isaiah 49:2 2 And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword; In the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me, And made Me a polished shaft; In His quiver He has hidden Me.” Hosea 6:5 5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of My mouth; And your judgments are like light that goes forth. 2 Thessalonians 2:8 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. Revelation 1:16 16 He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. Revelation 2:16 16 Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth. Revelation 19:15 15 Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. Revelation 19:21 21 And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh. This is why we are commanded to read, study, and meditate on God's Word daily. My case for the “Vine & Fig Tree” worldview will only be persuasive if you read the verses of Scripture.
	Chapter 22 Lawful Oaths and Vows	I studied law and passed the California Bar Exam. I was completely qualified to become an attorney, but the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that Christians -- whose allegiance to God trumps their allegiance to the government -- cannot be permitted to take the oath required of all attorneys. Details. An oath is an act of religious worship, not a secular formality. Vows are an important tool in developing character according to God's Law. Understanding Vows
	Chapter 21 Religious Worship, and the Sabbath Day	The Day of Rest is the seventh day. "The Lord's Day" is the first day/eighth day, commemorating the resurrection. The two concepts are distinct, but too often confused. The fourth of the ten commandments is to work six days and rest on the seventh. The fourth commandment does not say to work five days, rest on the seventh, and "go to church" on the eighth day. Clergymen emphasize the importance of "going to church" on Sunday, and ignore the importance of work as the main source of prosperity and government. Businesses create government because they foster habits and character which undergird order, which make profit possible. The Business Covenant
		Work, not Theft A Jewish scholar named Franz Oppenheimer divided people into two groups. The first group he called "Economic Man." "Economic Man" engages in work, produces things of value (or provides valuable services) and gets paid, then trades that money for things other people produce. The second group he called "Political Man." These people do not produce, they confiscate. Because Christians are "pacifists," they believe in overcoming evil with good. In Romans 12, we respond to evil with food or drink, and in Romans 13 we respond to evil with gifts of money, hoping in these cases that God will grant repentance to those who do evil to us. Taxation is extortion, a form of theft. There isn't a single verse in the Bible to which any human being alive today can point to and say, "This verse assures me that if I declare myself to be the king, I can threaten you with violence if you do not give me the money I demand, and God will not hold me guilty of sin." If someone sins against you, and you do everything Jesus says to do in order to help that person repent and right his wrongs, Jesus says to "excommunicate" him (our modern terminology, not His), and treat him like someone who cannot possibly be a genuine Christian: "a tax collector" (Matthew 18:17). If there is no theft, there is no "State." "Civil government" is distinguished from businesses and charities by its claim to have a right to steal. “Public Sector” “Private Sector” “Government” Sector Non-“Government” Sector Monopoly Sector Competitive Sector Coercive Sector Persuasive Sector Violent Sector Peaceful Sector Parasite Sector Productive Sector "Political Man" "Economic Man"
		Let's consider next the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill." (Exodus 20:13, quoted by Jesus, Mark 10:19) That link contains the exposition of the 6th Commandment in the Westminster Larger Catechism. It is "a pacifist manifesto."
Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation will not lift up sword against nation And never again will they train for war.		Peace / Non-Violence / Pacifism I believe that God says "Thou shalt not kill." "Everybody knows" that Jesus commanded His disciples to be "pacifists," but most churches say we can't take that to an "extreme."  Most churches defend some killing. If someone personally insults you, you might be a "pacifist." It's OK to be "super spiritual" in your "private" life. But if some foreigner publicly insults your secular government, you'll "support the troops" as they drop bombs and kill children. "Spiritual" in the private sector, "responsible" and "practical" and "realistic" in the public sector. During the 20th century, hundreds of millions of human beings were murdered by atheists, many of whom attended churches regularly. During my lifetime, "Christians" who worked for "my" government killed, crippled, or made homeless tens of millions of innocent non-combatant civilians around the world. I think the United States is the enemy of God and humanity. I guess other Christians think it's OK to inflict mass suffering and terror in order to keep gas prices down. "U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" "I Pledge Allegiance...." The Bible says we should beat our "swords into plowshares" (Micah 4). Most churches disagree. They cheer their members when they don the uniform of a soldier for a "New World Order." Jesus commands us to Love our enemies (Matthew 5:44) Forgive enemies (Matthew 6:14-15) Bless enemies (Romans 12:14) Pray for enemies (Luke 6:27-28) Give gifts to enemies (Romans 12:20; Matthew 5:42; Luke 6:30) Resist not evil (Matthew 5:39) Turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39) These commands are not just for "personal relationships." They apply to enemy governments as well. Pay your taxes; don't take up arms against the Red Coats ("Render unto Caesar," Matthew 22:15-22; Mark 12:13-17; Luke 20:20-26). When the enemy government enslaves you for one mile, Go a second mile (Matthew 5:41). If you take this verse seriously, it means "national defense" is a sin. In short, to follow "in His steps" (1 Peter 2:21), you have a moral obligation to "be subject" (Romans 13) to sinful acts which the defendant/perpetrators/invaders have a moral obligation to repent of (cease and desist). Christians should believe that it is always sinful to kill a human being ("Thou shalt not kill." Mark 10:19, quoting Exodus 20:13). (Link goes to an exposition of the 6th Commandment by the Westminster Larger Catechism, which in many ways is a pacifist manifesto.) Better to be killed than to kill. Patrick Henry famously said, "Give me Liberty or give me Death." That's stupid and unBiblical. The Bible says slaves are to serve their masters the way they should serve Christ, not commit suicide so that they don't have to serve anyone. But then, Patrick Henry didn't really mean "give ME death." He meant "Give Death to anyone who threatens to take my Liberty." His famous speech is called "A Call to Arms." It was delivered in a church. During the "Cold War" against Communism, we often heard the slogan, "Better dead than Red." This is a re-branding of Patrick Henry. The Christian should say, "Better Red than dead." Or, "Better to live under the domination of Reds than to turn the Reds into Dead Reds." Christians are commanded to leave vengeance to God (Romans 12:14-21) If you preached a sermon in defense of pacifism, and told members of your congregation not to enlist in the armed services, you would lose most of your members. That's the sermon I would preach. In short, even if I get snubbed as a "pacifist" (a demeaning epithet, an insult), I will take Jesus seriously and follow Him. [more in-depth: The Case for Pacifism] Pacifism I was born in the year of "Sputnik," the Russian satellite that inaugurated "the Space Race" which was a part of "the Cold War." I wasn't yet in high school when the Vietnam War raged, and when the nation was divided by anti-war protesters. I was raised to believe that socialism was evil and capitalism was good. I believed that the anti-war protesters were a bunch of anti-American commies. (They may well have been incited by Communists and used by Communists as tools or pawns in Moscow's attempt to bring down the American/capitalist system. But they were on the right side of an immoral war.*) During my lifetime, "my" government has killed, crippled, or made homeless TENS OF MILLIONS of innocent, non-combatant, non-white civilians. The United States drops a bomb somewhere in the world every 12 minutes, on average. Barack Obama, who won the Nobel Prize for Peace, maintained U.S. military bases in nearly 100 nations around the world. It was only when I became a fundamentalist Bible-believing Christian that I began to question all this. The message of this sermon is that a person is not a real Christian if that person is not a pacifist. You may not agree with the conclusion, but following the argument will stimulate thought. You will be glad you gave the argument some attention. Most people would agree that a person who says we should hammer our "swords into plowshares" and "never again train for war" (Micah 4:3) is a "pacifist." Is this a "fringe" belief or is it central to the Christian faith? Consider James 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. Victim of U.S. Bombing "It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones." Luke 17:2 . If it's wrong to fail to "visit" or "watch over" widows, it is certainly wrong to create widows by killing their husbands. The United States is the greatest Widow-Maker on earth. This makes the United States the enemy of pure religion. But I had been raised to believe that all good Christians were to "support the troops." In the last section of Matthew 25, Jesus says the way you treat widows and orphans and the sick and homeless and illegal aliens and those in prison is a measure of how Christian you are. People who traumatize widows and orphans and cause them to cry themselves to sleep at night are probably "goats," not "sheep." Take an American child who has not yet entered government-run schooling and show the American child a photo of a child in Yemen or Iraq who has had her arms blown off by a U.S. bomb. That American child will know that something is wrong. Show that same photo to that same child after the child has graduated from Harvard University and has a prestigious job in the U.S. State Department. Watch the five-dollar words start flying: "Collateral Damage." "Realpolitik." "U.S. Partners and Allies." "National Security Interests." Pacifism and Enemies Some might say that we are not commanded to take care of women and children if their husbands and fathers are our "enemies." That is, if those poor men have been conscripted at gunpoint by a tyrannical dictatorship and forced to fight against "U.S. armed forces" invading their homeland. After all, they are our "enemies." "Kill the commies." "Support our troops." But Jesus commands His followers to love their enemies. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,” Matthew 5:43-44 Jesus sacrificed Himself to save His enemies. Christ died for the ungodly God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. Romans 5:6,8,10 The heartfelt desire of every true Christian is the Regeneration, Repentance, Restitution, Reconciliation, and Redemption of "the enemy." Not the destruction of the enemy. In short: "Love your enemy." (Matthew 5:43) "Thou shalt not kill." (Exodus 20:13). You cannot love your enemy after you kill him. It is better to be killed than to kill. Jesus chose to be killed rather than to kill. 1 Peter 2:21 commands us to follow "in His steps" at precisely the point where physical violence is unrighteously threatened against us. Whether by a home invader or a nation invader. All of this is obvious to a child, but we adults don't buy this nonsense. "Pacifism" Defined by Christ The word "pacifism" comes from the Latin word for "peace." It does not come from the English word "passive." Supporters of the Vine & Fig Tree worldview are active in beating swords into plowshares. The dictionaries usually give two definitions for "pacifist." First, an opponent of war. Second, an opponent of self-defense. That second definition is inaccurate. I know of no pacifist who would say that if you have a shield and someone comes after you with a sword, you cannot defend yourself against aggression with your shield. The real issue is lethal "self-defense." If your sword-bearing attacker gets tired of whacking his sword against your shield, and lies down to take a nap, the pacifist would say you should defend yourself against further attacks by running away, not by cracking your attacker's skull open with your shield. Our definition of "pacifist" is "one who keeps the commandments of Christ." Here's what "swords into plowshares" pacifism means: Jesus said ("Thou shalt not kill." Mark 10:19, quoting Exodus 20:13).  John Calvin recognized that "The sum of this Commandment is, that we should not unjustly do violence to any one. Under the word 'kill' is included by synecdoche all violence, smiting, and aggression."[1] Jesus also said "Thou shalt not steal," (Matthew 19:18; Exodus 20:13-16; Deuteronomy 5:17-20), meaning, Thou shalt not confiscate someone else's property. So can we all agree that basic Christian morality includes this: "Don't Hurt People and Don't Take Their Stuff" But Jesus goes further. He says we are not to hurt our enemy. Even if our enemy hurts us first. We are not allowed to confiscate the stuff belonging to our enemy, even if he's our enemy because he did not join us in voting for the winning candidate. So how does the world get to the “Vine & Fig Tree” world? According to the Bible, just follow basic Christian morality: "Don't Hurt People and Don't Take Their Stuff" Then if someone else decides to hurt you or take your stuff. Exhort your enemy to repent (Matthew 18:15-17) And if this fails to bring repentance, restitution, and reconciliation with your enemy, Leave vengeance to God (Romans 12:19-21; quoting Deuteronomy 32:35) That means that if someone hurts you or takes your stuff, and you seek reconciliation, but you're rebuffed, then you cannot hire a Mafia "hit-man" to take vengeance against your unrepentant enemy. Most Christians will agree with that. But here's the kicker: If someone hurts you or takes your stuff, and you seek reconciliation, but you're rebuffed, then you cannot "vote" for a "representative" to tax your neighbor and build a "military-industrial complex" to take vengeance against your unrepentant enemy. You will vote such politicians out of office. If you vote all non-pacifists out of office, you will no longer have a "government." That claim causes many people to do a double-take. Your Sunday School teacher never put it quite like that. All pacifists are anarchists. Anarcho-pacifism Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not steal Peace Swords into Plowshares Standing Armies Government = force Non-Aggression No retaliatory force Capitalism: The Economics of Peace How to Love Your Enemy Myth: OT = violence, slavery Jesus = irrelevant utopian hippie pacifist; not "practical" or "realistic." Fact: Bible = “Vine & Fig Tree”   utopia Peace through Peace, not through "Strength." | "Swords into Plowshares" Most universities are extensions of the Military-Industrial Complex. Jesus is our Savior, not the Pentagon Vengeance belongs to God "Archism" is sinful. No Bible College in America will admit that Jesus commands us to be pacifists, we should not "support the troops," and we should abolish "the Department of Defense." Pacifism leads to Anarcho-Theocracy Peace is possible Peace is inevitable Peace is the opposite of Violence. The State is a monopoly of violence. Therefore pacifism produces anarchism or archistlessness. Non-Archism Audio
		Vengeance Nobody can read the Bible and avoid the conclusion that the institution we call "the State" is institutionalized vengeance. If someone does something you don't like, you are prohibited from taking vengeance, from confiscating his property, or depriving him of his life. You are also prohibited from hiring a "contract killer" to kill him. Wouldn't you agree? You personally didn't do the killing -- the "hit-man" you hired actually did the killing -- but you share in the guilt. You are also prohibited from "voting" for someone to be your "representative" and kill people you don't like. Every political science professor in every university on planet earth will agree that the essential nature of "the State" is violence. It claims a "monopoly on violence." Wikipedia || Encyclopedia Britannica || Oxford So    • if you oppose violence,    • if you oppose theft, and    • if you oppose vengeance, every political science professor in every university on planet earth, and every seminary professor, and every pastor of every entity calling itself a "church" is going to say you are an "anarchist."
		Extremism I love the Lord with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength. Not just part-way. That makes me an "extremist." People tell me I take the Bible to an extreme. I think I just take it consistently. At least I try. If you disagree with this -- if you want to avoid "extremes" -- then you want to be at point "M" on the chart below: Extreme Middle of the Road Extreme A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Capitalism Apathy Tyranny Theocracy Lukewarm Atheism Love Indifference Hate Do you want to be a Grade "A" Christian? Then you had better avoid being a Grade "Z" Christian with  all  your heart, mind, soul and strength. "It's a sign of mediocrity when you demonstrate gratitude with moderation." ~ Roberto Benigni If you are not an extremist in defense of the Bible, what is the guiding principle that prevents you from being a defender of tyranny, atheism and hate? Is "moderation" the Grand Principle that you believe will keep America from collapsing into chaos and lawlessness? When Jesus said "Love your neighbor," was He really just telling us not to hate our neighbor, to avoid extremes, and have an attitude of "moderation" toward our neighbor? Can Lukewarm Indifference ever be Christlike? Even if my goal were no more than "moderation," if you are at point "Z," I must be an "extremist" in the opposite direction, and advocate "A" in order to get you to point "M,"  because if I only advocate "Moderation,"  "Z + M" only brings you to point "T." Life is a tug-of-war. If you don't pull the rope with every ounce of strength you have, you're in the mud. Jesus said the struggle to overcome the world is "agonizing." I advocate "A" on the scale above. I'm trying to get you to adopt "A" as your position as well. If you're a Moderate and I move you toward "A" to any degree, I've succeeded. For now. If you follow some of what the Bible says, you are not following anything the Bible says. If you pick and choose, you are your own god. Even if you choose to follow Jesus 99% of the time (using your "free will"), it is still YOU who are choosing, you who approve of 99% of Jesus' commands, you who put yourself in the place of God and judge some of what Christ said to be wrong,  you who are acting as lord of your life. You view religion as a Smörgåsbord. You pick and choose depending on what YOU like, but do not view the Word of God as an absolutely binding package deal. Everybody agrees with something Jesus said, even some real sickos. A Christian is someone who believes everything Jesus said. Nothing less than full submission counts for anything.
Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation will not lift up sword against nation And never again will they train for war.	Chapter 23 the Civil Magistrate	Anarchism So what is the result of my extreme Biblicism? I call it the “Vine & Fig Tree” worldview. I created a non-profit organization to promote this worldview. www.VineandFigTree.org People tell me that my extremism is "unrealistic," "impractical," and "utopian." Again, the quotation from John Adams: In his diary on February 22, 1756, John Adams, later second President of the United States, wrote this: Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience,      • to temperance, frugality, and industry,      • to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and      • to piety, love and reverence towards Almighty God. What a Utopia, what a Paradise would this region be. I believe the only law book we need is the Bible. I'll say more about this in just a minute. The Bible is a textbook for every subject, not just religion. In our day, that's one of the most offensive things anyone can say. If you said this from the pulpit, half the church would leave, and the other half would leave as soon the first half explained to them what you meant. I know my way around a law library. I've spent hundreds of hours in law libraries studying the law. I passed the California Bar Exam, but was denied a license to practice law because America -- once a Christian nation -- is now a secular nation, and Christians cannot become attorneys, according to the Supreme Court of the United States, because their allegiance to God's Law Book trumps their allegiance to Washington D.C.'s law books. Details. Not everyone is going to take the Bible as their only law book, and behave like Jesus commands all men to behave. What should we do about these people? Jesus gave us a step-by-step blueprint to follow in Matthew 18. Here's how that could work out. The Bible never commanded human beings to form "governments" to deal with criminals by taking vengeance against them. In fact, it is a sin to create a government. Creating a government is a rejection of God (1 Samuel 8). The cost to society of a government is greater than the cost to society of criminals under anarcho-pacifism. We'll return to this below. Archistlessness Focus text: "swords into plowshares, never again train for war" Micah 4:3 And He will judge between many peoples And rebuke mighty, distant nations. Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation will not lift up sword against nation And never again will they train for war. Beating "swords into plowshares" implies a theory of government, as well as a theory of eschatology. Political Philosophy: What kind of "government" has no "defense department?" Isn't that the whole purpose for forming a "government?" It is. No war = no need for "government" A free market can resolve disputes without a "monopoly of violence." Eschatology: When will governments go out of business? Which nation will be the first nation to abolish their armies? Can a purportedly Christian nation like the U.S. wait for evil nations like North Korea and Iran to be the first to do the right (Godly) thing and beat their swords into plowshares, and then -- only after the bad guys obey God -- the good guys can obey God? Are the good guys supposed to lead, or follow? The word "anarchist" comes from two Greek words meaning "not an archist." Q.: What is an archist? A.: A bad person. A person who lacks Godly character. Seeks to be god, impose vengeance, regulation by threats of violence. Anarcho-Preterism Let's examine the word "anarchism," which is even more offensive to most Christians than "preterism." Even more offensive to modern Christians than the belief that Jesus  IS  the Christ (today) (and we shouldn't be waiting around for a second advent of Jesus) is the claim that Jesus is THE Christ today; that in our day there is no other legitimate Christ, no other legitimate king. Nobody believes in "kings" anymore. So let's update our language. Jesus is the only legitimate President, Governor, Prime Minister, Premier, Chief Executive, or Emir. Jesus is also the only legitimate Legislator. Jesus is a One-Man Legislature. Jesus is "the Supreme Judge of the World" (to quote the Declaration of Independence); the only legitimate Judge or Justice. Jesus is the only legitimate Department of Homeland Security and Joint Chiefs of Staff. As we will see below, Isaiah 33:22 confirms this: For the Lord is our Judge, The Lord is our Lawgiver, The Lord is our King; He will save us As we will see below, it was a mistake for Israel to want an earthly king to replace God (1 Samuel 8). And as we will see below, Jesus prohibits His followers from aspiring to rule over others. Jesus said a Christian must not be an "archist." An "archist" is a "ruler." We here at Vine & Fig Tree invented the word "archist," deriving it from a Greek word found in Mark 10:42-45, from which the English word "anarchist" is derived.  In the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10 (see more below), Jesus discovers His disciples arguing about who is going to be the "greatest" in the Kingdom of God. Their concept of the Messiah was someone who would use force and violence to vanquish the Roman occupation army that held Israel under tribute. They looked forward to the coming of a Messiah who would enlist them into a Messianic Israeli Army which would "stick it to" the Romans. But just as Micah said we should beat "swords into plowshares," Jesus said His disciples should "love your enemies," and if their soldiers conscript you to carry their provisions for one mile, you should go with the occupation forces two. (This form of pacifism completely refutes the legitimacy of "national defense.") The disciples didn't understand that Jesus' Messianic Kingdom was quite unlike the kingdoms of the world. But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, "You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. {43} Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. {44} And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. {45} "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." The word translated "rulers" comes from the Greek word from which we derive our English word "anarchist" ("a + archist" -- the first "a" is the Greek letter "alpha," known as the "alpha privative," meaning "not"  --     a[n]archist  -- the letter "n" bridges the "alpha privative" and the word "archist"). "Lords," "rulers" and "great ones" are "archists." An "archist" believes he has the right to impose his will on other people by force. He need not rely solely on persuasion. He need not give others anything of value in exchange for what he wants from others. He can threaten violence, and carry out those threats if he doesn't get what he wants. It would be sinful for others to engage in such violent extortion or vengeance, but the "archist" claims a "legal" and moral right to do what others must not do. Jesus clearly says His followers are not to be "archists." They are to be "servants." A Christian society is an archist-free society. We have been brainwashed in "public" schools (run by archists) to believe that an "anarchist" is: a bomb-throwing assassin who rejects the doctrine of private property, seeks to foment disorder, chaos and riots in order to overthrow the government by force and violence and establish some dreadful political ideal like "the dictatorship of the proletariat," where everyone is his own god and criminals run wild. Anyone can be called an "anarchist" by someone who wants to vilify an opponent, but most of those who call themselves "anarchist" have reached their position by their opposition to violence. I am a pacifist, therefore I am opposed to any institution of systematic violence and coercion (e.g., "the Mafia," "the State," etc.). By etymological definition, the opposite of an "anarchist" is an "archist." By being trained to believe that "anarchists" are bad, we've been subtly inculcated with the belief that those who protect us against "anarchists" (logically, "archists") are good. But the Bible says archists are bad, and explicitly prohibits us from being archists. Jesus says His followers are not to be archists. Connect the dots. www.HowToBecomeAChristianAnarchist.com Mark 10:42-45 (and other passages we're going to be considering in a moment) teaches that Christians are prohibited from aspiring to be "archists." Christians are prohibited from trying to elect an "archist" to any public office. There should not be any "public offices" at all. Eliminating "public offices" would dramatically raise our standard of living (if we obey all the commands of Jesus the Christ). All Pacifists are Anarchists If you oppose violence, you cannot be an "archist." A logically consistent Christian pacifist is also an anarchist, for two reasons:      • First, a pacifist is against violence, and "the State" is institutionalized, systematic violence;      • Second, Jesus prohibits His followers from being "archists" An "archist" is one who believes he has a right to impose his own will on others by force or threats of violence. Chiefly, the "archist" imposes his will on others through the machinery of "the State," whose tactics include    • fines,    • prisons,    • torture,    • executions,    • armed invasions, and    • terrorism. The Christian, on the contrary, believes it is always sinful to impose your own will on others by initiating force or threatening violence. (We are to be servants, not "archists." Mark 10:42-45.) I know, that sounds "weird." "Anarchism?" Aren't "anarchists" bad people? As I read the Bible,  the bad guys are the "archists." Chapter after chapter in the Bible says "archists" are false gods. Only Jesus is a legitimate Archist. People who don't see earthly "archists" as bad guys are themselves guilty of idolatry. The Bible is an "Anarchist Manifesto." From cover to cover, the Bible condemns archists -- violent people, like Cain, Lamech, violent men that provoked the flood in Noah's day, Nimrod, and so on. These evil, violent people are the ones who created "civil governments." The Origin of "the State" ("Civil Government") - Political Philosophy 101 According to the Bible Christians who strongly oppose "anarchism" (I used to be one of them) believe the Bible prescribes (not just describes) civil governments. They believe God's Law contains laws for "governments." The Myth of "The Civil Law" Every political science professor in every university on planet earth will agree that the essential nature of "the State" is violence. It claims a "monopoly on violence." Wikipedia || Encyclopedia Britannica || Oxford || More: The State as Monopoly of Violence Using the Greek word from which we derived the English word "anarchist," Jesus plainly says His followers are not to be "archists." Mark 10:42-45. We are to be servants, not "archists." "Not" + "archist" = "anarchist" Only Jesus is a legitimate Archist. People who don't see earthly "archists" as bad guys are themselves guilty of idolatry. God says "Thou shalt not steal." You would never go up to your next-door neighbor, put a gun to his head, and say "give me some of your money." But you vote for people who promise to do this on your behalf, and give the money to you or people you approve of. There is no ethical difference between "taxes" and "extortion." Here's an example of me butting-in on someone's blog and promoting my views: Godwords. "What about Romans 13?" I'm always asked this question when I say I'm an "anarcho-pacifist." Romans 12 and 13 are a unit on not resisting evil. "Bless those who persecute you" (Romans 12:14) does not mean that persecutors have God's ethical approval. They need to repent. We are not to resist evil (Romans 12:19), but to overcome evil with good gifts (Romans 12:21), even (turn the page) the most evil entity on the planet: The State (Romans 13:1ff). Paul refers to the Empire as "the Powers." Everywhere that Greek word is used in the New Testament, it means "demonic." Even the Romans believed that demons (daimones, daimoneV) guided the Empire. The message of Romans 13 is "be subject to evil." The message of Romans 13 is not "evil is good." Yes, "all things work together for good" (Romans 13:4; 8:28), even evil things, like "principalities and powers" (Romans 8:38) and their sword (Romans 8:35). But evil people have a moral obligation to repent of things that pacifists have a moral obligation to submit to. www.Romans13.com
Focus text: "His Vine" And each of them will sit under his Vine and under his fig tree,]	Chapter 24 Marriage and Divorce	Patriarchy This verse assumes "family values" taught elsewhere in the Bible in more detail. Family Male + Female Father + mother Homosexuality, Abortion, Archism -- It's "a package deal" Patriarchy Self-Government "Economics" = "family government" The monogamous heterosexual family is the root of civilization. "Patriarchy" is a hated word. It doesn't mean what you think it means. Christian morality begins at home. Vine & Fig Tree is a decentralized family-centered society Government: Patriarchal or Political? Jesus is our Priest and King All Christians are priests and kings No humans are priests or kings. Imagine a society made up entirely of loving families and no priests and no politicians. Pierre Joseph Proudhon: Patriarchy and Agrarian Jurisprudence The modern concept of "separation of church and state" -- which really means the "separation of God and the Public Square" -- denies the concept of Biblical Theocracy. This website not only denies "the separation of church and state," but promotes "the abolition of church and state." The Bible uses “Vine & Fig Tree” imagery to describe a time when we beat our "swords into plowshares" and everyone dwells peacefully under his own “Vine & Fig Tree.” The New Testament describes Christians as "sons of Abraham" the Patriarch. Abraham and Sarah were not under the rule of any State or Empire. The desire to have a creaturely king is a rejection of God the Creator as King (1 Samuel 8; Romans 1:25). The real meaning of Easter is that Jesus is now -- in 2022 -- the only legitimate King. Every king on planet earth should immediately abdicate and get a real job in "the Private Sector." This is one reason why every government in the last 2000 years has eventually banned the Bible. Even the United States, where The Supreme Court has ruled that public school teachers cannot tell students that Jesus the King says "Thou shalt not steal" (Matthew 19:18; Exodus 20:13-16; Deuteronomy 5:17-20). Creaturely kings are "false gods" in the Bible, and they correctly view the Bible as a threat to their idolatrous reign: to them, The Bible is an "Anarchist Manifesto." According to the Bible, creaturely government is "The Most Dangerous Idolatry." It will take me a while to convince you that the Real Meaning of Easter is “Vine & Fig Tree.” I'll have to persuade you to read a lot of Bible verses through new eyes.  Abraham and Sarah did not "go to church." Their priest was Melchizedek, as in ours. Family = "undemocratic" says progressives When families are functional, the State is unnecessary; Archism is socially unapproved John Adams: importance of mothers Audio The Family is God's central unit of society. The family is commanded to teach God's Law. Therefore next installment: Education 10: Education Focus text: That He may teach us about His ways And that we may walk in His paths." Supplemental texts: Deuteronomy 4:9f.; 6:7f., 20f.; 11:18-21, etc. Family teaches the Law http://bit.ly/teach-your-children Education must be Theonomic/Theocratic: the central command is to teach God's Law Law-teaching the nations through hospitality and open borders. Micah 4:2 "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD And to the House of the God of Jacob, That He may teach us about His ways And that we may walk in His paths." For from Zion will go forth the Law Even the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem. Different from evangelism - Converting the existing generation vs. teaching the next generation "Education" includes "character" by way of "apologetics" and service. Lifelong learners / lifelong teachers Therefore Education by Patriarchy produces character. 11: Character "Character" is the ability to stand against the crowd, in faith, in obedience to God. Though all the peoples walk Each in the name of his god, As for us, we will walk In the Name of the LORD our God forever and ever. • What you do when nobody is watching • What you do when everybody is watching (and mocking) Micah highlights the importance of teaching God's Law. Ethics is more important than genius. An ethical society with average IQ has a higher standard of living than a pervasively unethical society with many Einsteins and "geniuses." Egg-heads can spend their time slicing and dicing arcane questions in science and philosophy -- which may be "true" in some sense -- but miss "the weightier matters" of God's Law -- Justice, Mercy, and Faith (Matthew 23:23). True education enables a Christian to stand against unbelief. The ability to stand against the crowd, in faith, in obedience to God. Ethics is more important to civilization than intelligence. Character and pacifism - forgiveness, nurture vs. rule Character and Kingdom-building/optimillennialism | leadership Character 12: Agrarianism Focus Text: Vine and under his  fig tree, And each of them will sit under his Vine and under his  fig tree, With no one to make them afraid. For the LORD of hosts has spoken. The story of the Bible is "paradise lost" and Paradise Restored. The blessings God promises in Deuteronomy 28 are (on the surface) primarily agricultural. Would you be willing to live for hundreds of years in the Garden of Eden with a community of sanctified people . . . but no cell phone? Garden Eden Land Property 30,000 verses or John 3:16 Agrarianism vs. technology "Salvation" in the Bible means the restoration of the conditions of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 1-2) But Man's goal and purpose is to build the Garden into the City of God. (Revelation 21-22) Is "Industrialism" possible without the sword (police and military) of "the State?" What kind of industrialism would emerge in the absence of "False weights and Measures" and extortion-subsidies? Will we have "agrarianism" or "technocracy?" Who gets to decide for you? Who gets to decide for hundreds of millions of people? Studies in Mutualist Political Economy: Industrialism vs. Decentralism -- The Role of the State Agrarian Man vs. Industrialist Man: Political vs. Economic Man Pierre Joseph Proudhon: Agrarian Jurisprudence Environmentalism Compare first three chapters in Genesis with last three chapters in Revelation: Edenic imagery - Garden of Eden / City of God Wilderness vs. Garden: Garden = Order Audio "Salvation" in the Bible means the restoration of the conditions of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 1-2). But Man's goal and purpose is to build the Garden into the City of God. (Revelation 21-22) If you grow your own food, you have safe, nutritious food even when the "supply chain" breaks down. If you don't grow your own food, you're dependent on food that must be stripped of nutrition so that it doesn't spoil as it travels vast distances and sits on the shelf at Walmart. Living off land depends on owning the land. Therefore Agrarianism is related to Property. 13: Property/Communism Focus text: Micah 4:4 Vine and under his  fig tree, "Communism" is a word like "Theocracy" -- everyone hates the word. The Bible says "Thou shalt not steal" stuff that pertains to another. This means someone possesses something and should not be dispossessed. The world "Property" comes from the Latin proprietas, from proprius ‘one's own, particular.’ Related to the word "proper." Someone representing himself in court comes before the court "In Pro Per" or In Propria Persona. Your person is your basic property. If you turn a wilderness into a garden, the garden is your property. It was wrong for Jezebel and Ahab to steal Naboth's vine and fig tree. Naboth said to Ahab, “The Lord forbid that I should give the inheritance of my patriarchs to you!” (1 Kings 21:3) The Bible holds out the ideal of property free from princes and pirates. See the phrases "dwell safely" and "none to make them afraid" in the Bible. But the Bible is also communitarian (or some English word that substitutes for the Greek word κοινωνία, koinōnía). Christian fellowship is more than each man standing on his front porch with an AK-47 protecting his right to "private property." If you turn wilderness into a garden, you "own" the garden. But if a garden is held communally, the pirate is not permitted to say that it is not anyone's "property" because it is not held as an individual under "Lockean homesteading theory." How some Christians practice "communism": Bruderhof – Community of Goods America errs on the side of individualism to the neglect of "fellowship," "sharing" "community," "extended family," and other Biblical concepts. Some opponents of archism are also opponents of private property. The French anarchist Pierre Joseph Proudhon famously said, "Property is theft." But what he meant was what Isaiah likely intended: "Woe to you who add more houses to your houses and more fields to your fields. Finally there is no room left for other people. Then you are left alone in the land" (Isaiah 5:8). Some people hire archists to prevent farmers from living off the land. Accumulation without use and productivity is not the ideal. But one individual accumulating more property than others and producing more than others and becoming richer than others need not be discouraged. See Abraham, Genesis 13:2. God's creation consists of unlimited wealth. There's more than enough property for everyone. 14. Socialism/Community Focus text: the ones God has afflicted In that day, saith the LORD, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted; And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever. I was raised to believe that "capitalism" was better than "socialism." Unquestionably, freedom is better for humanity than centralized control and planning. State "Socialism" has resulted in poverty and mass death wherever it has been tried: Soviet Union, China, Cuba, Venezuela, etc. But in 2022, young people who are unaware of the history of State Socialism in the 20th century have been victims of "Mass Formation Psychosis" and pay lip service to "socialism" and criticize "capitalism." What they criticize under the name "capitalism" is not freedom from archists. It is not 100% pure laissez-faire capitalism with 0% socialism. They are criticizing a "mixed economy." Before the rise of monopoly capitalism in the latter part of the 19th and early 20th century, critics of the State were also champions of the poor, the weak, and the oppressed. These anarchists have also called themselves "socialists." 19th-century anarchists and socialists were critical of economic policies like usury (interest of any amount secured by a legal privilege), which the Bible also criticizes. In addition to usury, anarchists and socialists like Benjamin Tucker were critical of A. The Land Monopoly B. The Money Monopoly C. Patents D. Tariffs Too often, "anarcho-socialists" have been envious of the rich, regardless of whether the rich accumulated their wealth fairly in the service of others, or by state-assisted exploitation. We can learn from "socialist" opponents of archism if we are also discerning. Darwinism vs. The Weak ("social darwinism") The Remnant Extended Home Community: Bereans vs. Fox News Hospitality vs. xenophobia || immigration vs. "enumerated powers." Service Works of Mercy vs. focus on "winners," celebrities, power-brokers Society vs. "State" Capitalism vs. "Law of the Jungle" Election by Grace "No man is an island." Community: Serving the weak rather than the powerful | The "driven out" and "afflicted" First step for students: mentoring. Second step: "works of mercy." Third step: production. Selling something other people buy voluntarily. A Godly calling. God "afflicts" and "drives out" using "archists." God restores using servants. The world's poor are best served by a division of labor under a Free Market, directed by an "Invisible Hand" who "assembles," "gathers," and "makes strong" using members of the Body of Christ. Audio
	Chapter 5 Providence	Capitalism, Not Socialism This is the most important issue in the world today, and -- if you think about it -- it is the most important issue in the Bible. Mass Death It is the most important issue in the world today because hundreds of millions of human beings have been murdered by those attempting to impose "socialism," and the lives of billions have been subjected to poverty and tyranny, while billions of people have had their lives improved under capitalism -- the freedom to live free from socialists and other archists. Idolatry and False Religion Biblically speaking, this is evidence of whether you believe in God or not. Specifically, whether you believe in Providence. If you don't believe Jesus is the all-powerful Messiah, then you are a deist, if not an atheist, and the god of deism is a false god. The concept of "The Invisible Hand of Divine Providence" is personal, while deism eventually sifts out as evolutionary. Evolution is the impersonal and random soil in which socialism thrives. Evolution is a religion; an archist religion; a rival to the religion of Christ. Idolatry is the subject of the First Commandment, it is the #1 issue in the pages of the Bible, and socialism is idolatry. Human archism is a false god. "Civil government" is an idol. The vast majority of church-going Christians cannot understand how Jesus could be reigning as the Messiah right now -- today -- without being physically present on earth, sitting on a literal throne in Jerusalem. It is because they do not understand this that they cannot coherently explain one of the most important concepts in our world today: Why Capitalism is better than Socialism. Because they don't understand economics, they don't understand how Jesus can reign as Messiah without creating a police state. Most church-goers cannot explain why capitalism has created the highest standard of living in human history, while socialism leads to poverty and mass death. Capitalism is a pacifist economic system. Capitalism is for "Economic Man." Socialism is for "Political Man." Church-going Christians do not understand how God governs the world. Church-going Christians do not understand how God wants the world to operate. Church-going Christians do not understand the Kingdom-Reign of God and our role in it. Socialism is when your life is all about "standing up for your rights." Archism. Capitalism is when your life is all about raising the standard of living of other people. Service. The Bible is a capitalist blueprint for healing our world. That's "good news." And "good news" is the meaning of the word "gospel" The word "Capitalism" Some people (generally on the "left") agree with us on the moral necessity of free markets, but dislike the word "capitalism." They make good points. Advocates of Freed Markets Should Embrace “Anti-Capitalism” » Center for a Stateless Society No One is Talking About Capitalism — In Your Sense » Center for a Stateless Society We Should Abandon the Term “Capitalism” » Center for a Stateless Society Embracing Markets, Opposing “Capitalism” » Center for a Stateless Society Markets Not Capitalism pdf Capitalism: Abandon the Term, or Stand By It? - Foundation for Economic Education Ep. 118: Gary Chartier - Do Markets Need Capitalism?
		15: Eternity forever Micah 4:5 As for us, we will walk In the Name of the LORD our God forever and ever. Micah 4:7 and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever. When the Vine & Fig Tree world is "established" (verse 1, fulfilled in Acts 2, esp. v.36), it is said to last "forever and ever." Isaiah 9:6-7 Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.   Luke 1 32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: 33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.   Daniel 7:14 Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.   Daniel 7:27 Then the kingdom and dominion, And the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, Shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And all dominions shall serve and obey Him.’   Revelation 11:15 Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”   Revelation 14:6 Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people— (See also Ecclesiastes 1:4; Psalm 78:69; 104:5; 148:3-6) Christ began reigning as Messiah at His Ascension. His Messianic reign is said to last "forever." Preterism The Latin word for "past" is praeter. The word "preterism" comes from the Latin word for past, which is brought into English words like "the preterit tense" and a school of eschatology called "preterism." Saying a prophecy was fulfilled in the past is called "Preterism." According to Peter in Acts 2, and elsewhere in the New Testament, the Apostles were living in "the Last Days" of the Old Covenant. This is when Jesus was made the Christ: in the past. So where does "the second coming" come in? This may be the most controversial position in "my credo." The vast majority of Christians believe Jesus will begin reigning as the Messiah (or "Christ") at His "second coming." Until then, life on earth is going to get worse and worse. I believe life on earth has been getting better and better because Christ began reigning in His Kingdom in the past. I believe "the second coming of Christ" already happened. It happened exactly when the Bible said it would happen: before "that generation" died out. It happened at the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 66-70. Jesus came a second time in judgment against those who rejected Him as the Christ. The same generation that witnessed His first coming also witnessed His second coming. It happened in the past. The claim that Jesus is the Messiah today (not just in the future) is the claim that Jesus was made "Lord and Christ" in the past. This is the "good news," or "Gospel."

In a sentence, this is the view of Vine & Fig Tree University:

Jesus is the Christ.

• www.JesusistheChrist.today

When you first hear it, you might think that the juxtaposition of "Jesus" and "Christ" is obvious and not at all controversial. But when you dig deeper, it appears that this is the most controversial proposition on planet earth.

• Jews don't believe that Jesus is the Christ ("Christ" means "Messiah").
• Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah, fulfilling Old Testament prophets who voiced the Word of our Creator-God.
• Atheists don't believe anyone is or ever will be a "messiah."

And -- most surprisingly -- the vast, overwhelming majority of professing, church-going (or non-churching) Christians do not believe that Jesus  is  the Christ today.

• Maybe they believe that Jesus has the "right" to be the Christ
• Maybe they believe that Jesus offered to be the Messiah, but the Jews rejected His offer, so He settled for offering them a ticket to heaven when they die ("Savior," but not "King"). (An offer they also reject, because who wants to spend eternity hanging out with a deluded con-man who falsely claimed to be the Messiah and rejected the Law and the Prophets [held dear by the Jews, we are told]?)
• Most likely they believe that Jesus will someday ("soon") become the Messiah, when He comes again, a second time, and then He will begin His Messianic reign on earth.
• But they all agree that Jesus is not -- today -- reigning as Messiah (exercising His rightful powers at full level, high-octane, from a throne in Jerusalem). The Messianic reign is for tomorrow, not today.

I defend the proposition that Jesus is the Messiah right now, and has fulfilled or is fulfilling all the "messianic prophecies" -- even those prophecies most Christians reserve for "the millennium" or "the New Heavens and New Earth."

And I respect the fact that you think I'm a dangerous looney for claiming that the Second Coming already happened. I used to think that way too. Here are the verses on "this generation" and the "any moment return of Christ."

The focus of the New Testament is on the generation that rejected Jesus as the Christ, not any generation thousands or millions of years in the future. The "Second Coming" of Christ -- a coming in vengeance against those who murdered Him -- is said to be imminent everywhere in the New Testament. Atheists say Jesus was wrong about His Second Coming, but that's because atheists ignore those rules above. Jesus never predicted the imminent end of planet earth. He predicted the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, the end of the Old Covenant, and the beginning of the New Covenant. This all took place in the past, hence "preterism."

People tell me I'm insane (not rational) for believing this. After I show them my reasons for believing this, they might grant that I'm not irrational, but they say I'm heretical, because even if I have the Bible on my side, I don't have "the Church Fathers" on my side. In fact, some go so far as to say that I'm not a Christian at all for believing this.

When I was younger I did not believe this, and I would have said that anyone who believed this was either non-rational, heretical, or should be excommunicated as a person who cannot possibly be a genuine Christian.

I believe "the Second Coming of Christ" already happened. In the past, not in our future.

Virtually every Christian I meet says this is insane. Unhinged. Looney. Not rational.

They'll tell me, "Open your eyes! Just look around! Seriously??"

Believe me, I know that my views are considered "out there." And this view is the most "out there" of all. Most church-goers are aware that some Christians are "pacifists." That can be tolerated. Some of these Christians, because they oppose killing and extortion, want to have nothing whatever to do with "government," and they are called "anarchists" or "anabaptists" and other insults. They're considered kooky (unlike the violent revolutionary assassins who are called "anarchists" even though they are actually "archists" who use violence to get their way, and want to be in charge of their own new government; pacifists are "kooky," but revolutionaries are "dangerous").

But the claim that the Second Coming of Christ already happened is either dangerously heretical or flat out insane.

How To Interpret the Bible

Rules for Interpreting Scripture:

• Scripture interprets Scripture
• Never Read a Bible Verse
• Learn Biblical Hermeneutics
• Use the “grammatical-historical method”
• Put the Bible ahead of "Holy Mother the Church."
• Study the Bible daily, not just once in a great while.
• Study the Bible with others, like the Bereans.

Applying these simple and universally-agreed upon rules leads to this controversial conclusion:

The Second Coming of Christ happened in the past
and there is no prophecy of a Third Coming of Christ in our Future

In order to convince you that I am not insane, I need you to read a couple hundred verses of Scripture (found below). If you're willing to make the effort to get inside the mind of the authors of Scripture, by taking a couple of hours to read a lot of verses you haven't thought about before, you will say something to me like, "OK, you're not insane. I can see why you would come to that conclusion."

But even though you might admit that I'm not insane, you won't be able to admit that the Bible does not teach that Jesus will return in our future.

"If you don't believe in a future coming of Christ," you'll tell me, "you've denied The Faith and you're not even a Christian."

Even though I'm making a rational attempt to follow the teachings of the Bible.

"The Faith" means "the doctrines of the catholic church." The doctrines of "the church fathers."

Many people have told me I'm not a Christian because of the way I interpret the Bible on the issue of "eschatology." They believe this very strongly and dogmatically.

But their passion is matched by their ignorance of the Bible.

If you're willing to read a couple hundred verses of the Bible and re-think what you've been taught since Sunday School, click here and here.

Excursus A

But whereunto shall I liken this generation?
(Matthew 11:16-24)

The "second coming of Christ" was witnessed by the same generation that witnessed the first coming.

(Matthew 3:7-12) But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? {8} Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: {9} And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. {10} And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. {11} I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: {12} Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

(Matthew 11:16-24) But whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows, {17} And saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented. {18} For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil. {19} The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children. {20} Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not: {21} Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. {22} But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. {23} And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. {24} But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.

(Matthew 12:24-45) But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. {25} And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: {26} And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? {27} And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges. {28} But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. {29} Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house. {30} He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. {31} Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. {32} And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. {33} Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. {34} O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. {35} A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. {36} But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. {37} For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. {38} Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. {39} But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: {40} For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. {41} The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. {42} The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. {43} When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. {44} Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. {45} Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

(Matthew 16:1-12) The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven. {2} He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. {3} And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times? {4} A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed. {5} And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. {6} Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. {7} And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. {8} Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? {9} Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? {10} Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? {11} How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? {12} Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

(Matthew 17:12-23) But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. {13} Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist. {14} And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, {15} Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is a lunatic, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. {16} And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. {17} Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. {18} And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour. {19} Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? {20} And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. {21} Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. {22} And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men: {23} And they shall kill Him, and the third day He shall be raised again. And they were exceeding sorry.

(Matthew 23:27-39) Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. {28} Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. {29} Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, {30} And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. {31} Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. {32} Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. {33} Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? {34} Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: {35} That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. {36} Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. {37} O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! {38} Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. {39} For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

(Matthew 24:34) Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

(Mark 8:11-12) And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him. {12} And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation.

(Mark 8:31-38) And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. {32} And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. {33} But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. {34} And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. {35} For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. {36} For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? {37} Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? {38} Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. And He said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.

(Mark 9:19) He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me.

(Mark 13:30) Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.

(Luke 3:7-9) Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath about to come? {8} Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. {9} And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

(Luke 7:31-35) And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like? {32} They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept. {33} For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil. {34} The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! {35} But wisdom is justified of all her children.

(Luke 9:41) And Jesus answering said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, and suffer you? Bring thy son hither.

(Luke 11:29-32) And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. {30} For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation. {31} The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. {32} The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.

(Luke 11:39-54) And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. {40} Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also? {41} But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you. {42} But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. {43} Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets. {44} Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them. {45} Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him, Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also. {46} And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. {47} Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. {48} Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres. {49} Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: {50} That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; {51} From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation. {52} Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. {53} And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things: {54} Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him. {12:1) In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

(Luke 17:25) But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.

(Luke 21:32) Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.

(Acts 2:40) And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.

Excursus B

The Preterist "Context"

101 "Any Moment" Verses

The consistent preterist claims that there isn't a single verse of the New Testament which was intended by its author and understood by its original audience to be speaking of any discontinuous event thousands (or millions) of years in the future.

There are many verses which clearly speak of Christ coming in judgment against His enemies, and this coming is clearly timed as occurring before the generation that rejected Him dies out. This first-century coming is such a dominant theme in the New Testament Scriptures, that a sound application of the “grammatical-historical hermeneutic” would require any verse which is not clear about the timing of Christ's coming in judgment to be interpreted as fitting into that "default" pre-70AD time-frame. Some clear, explicit departure from that dominant context needs to appear in the text before one would conclude that that text breaks the mold and speaks not of an event in "that generation.," but of an event thousands or millions of years in the future.

Here are 101 verses warning "that generation" about the imminent "second coming" of Christ.

1. “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3:2)

2. “Who warned you to flee from the wrath about to come?” (Matthew 3:7)

3. “The axe is already laid at the root of the trees.” (Matthew 3:10)

4. “His winnowing fork is in His hand.” (Matthew 3:12)

5. “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17)

6. “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 10:7)

7. “You shall not finish going through the cities of Israel, until the Son of Man comes.” (Matthew 10:23)

8. “....the age about to come.” (Matthew 12:32)

9. “The Son of Man is about to come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and will then recompense every man according to his deeds.” (Matthew 16:27; Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26)

10. “Verily I say unto you, there are some of those who are standing here who shall not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom.” (Matthew 16:28; cf. Mark 9:1; Luke 9:27)

11. “‘When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?’ ‘....He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers, who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.’ ‘....Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and be given to a nation producing the fruit of it.’ ....When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them.” (Matthew 21:40-41,43,45)

12. “This generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” (Matthew 24:34)

13. “Hereafter, you [Caiaphas, the chief priests, the scribes, the elders, the whole Sanhedrin] shall be seeing the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” (Matthew 26:64; Mark 14:62; Luke 22:69)

14. “The kingdom of God is at hand.” (Mark 1:15)

15. “What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others. ....They [the chief priests, scribes and elders] understood that He spoke the parable against them.” (Mark 12:9,12)

16. “This generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” (Mark 13:30)

17. “Who warned you to flee from the wrath about to come?” (Luke 3:7)

18. “The axe is already laid at the root of the trees. “ (Luke 3:9)

19. “His winnowing fork is in His hand.” (Luke 3:17)

20. “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” (Luke 10:9)

21. “The kingdom of God has come near.” (Luke 10:11)

22. “What, therefore, will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy these vine-growers and will give the vineyard to others.” The scribes and the chief priests understood that He spoke this parable against them.” (Luke 20:15-16,19)

23. “These are days of vengeance, in order that all things which are written may be fulfilled.” (Luke 21:22)

24. “This generation will not pass away until all things take place.” (Luke 21:32)

25. “Daughters of Jerusalem , stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’” (Luke 23:28-30; Compare Revelation 6:14-17)

26. “We were hoping that He was the One who is about to redeem Israel .” (Luke 24:21)

27. “I will come to you. In that Day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.’ ‘Lord, what then has happened that You are about to disclose Yourself to us, and not to the world?’” (John 14:18,20,22)

28. “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?” (John 21:22)

29. “This is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall be in the last days’” (Acts 2:16 -17)

30. “He has fixed a day in which He is about to judge the world in righteousness” (Acts 17:31 )

31. “There is about to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.” (Acts 24:15)

32. “As he was discussing righteousness, self-control and the judgment about to come” (Acts 24:25)

33. “Not for [Abraham’s] sake only was it written, that [faith] was reckoned to him [as righteousness], but for our sake also, to whom it is about to be reckoned.” ( Rom. 4:23-24)

34. “If you are living according to the flesh, you are about to die.” (Romans 8:13 )

35. “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:18 )

36. “It is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand.” ( Romans 13:11-12)

37. “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” (Romans 16:20 )

38. “The time has been shortened.” (1 Corinthians 7:29)

39. “The form of this world is passing away.” (1 Corinthians 7:31)

40. “Now these things were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” (1 Corinthians 10:11)

Bonus Verse: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.” (1 Corinthians 10:26) [See below]

41. “We shall not all fall sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)

42. “Maranatha!” [The Lord comes!] (1 Corinthians 16:22)

43. “...not only in this age, but also in the one about to come.” (Ephesians 1:21)

44. “The Lord is near.” (Phil. 4:5)

45. “The gospel was proclaimed in all creation under heaven.” (Colossians 1:23; Compare Matthew 24:14; Romans 10:18 ; 16:26 ; Colossians 1:5-6; 2 Timothy 4:17 ; Revelation 14:6-7; cf. I Clement 5,7)

46. “things which are a shadow of what is about to come.” (Colossians 2:16-17)

47. “we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord We who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds You, brethren, are not in darkness, that the Day should overtake you like a thief.” (1 Thessalonians 4:15,17; 5:4)

48. “May your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23)

49. “It is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire.” (2 Thessalonians 1:6-7)

50. “Godliness holds promise for the present life and that which is about to come.” (1 Timothy 4:8)

51. “I charge you that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Timothy 6:14)

52. “storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for that which is about to come, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.” (1 Timothy 6:19)

53. “In the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self Avoid these men. For of these are those who enter into households and captivate weak women These also oppose the truth But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all” (2 Timothy 3:1-2,5-6,8-9)

54. “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is about to judge the living and the dead” (2 Timothy 4:1)

55. “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son.” (Hebrews 1:1-2)

56. “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who are about to inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14 )

57. “He did not subject to angels the world about to come.” (Hebrews 2:5)

58. “and have tasted the powers of the age about to come.” (Hebrews 6:5)

59. “For ground that drinks the rain which often falls upon it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near a curse, and it’s end is for burning.” (Hebrews 6:7-8)

60. “When He said, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. But what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.” (Hebrews 8:13)

61. “The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way of the [heavenly] Holy Places has not yet been revealed, while the outer tabernacle is still standing, which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience, since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation.” (Hebrews 9:8-10; Compare Galatians 4:19; Ephesians 2:21-22; 3:17; 4:13)

62. “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things about to come” (Hebrews 9:11 )

63. “Now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin.” (Hebrews 9:26)

64. “For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things about to come” (Hebrews 10:1)

65. “as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:25)

66. “the fury of a fire which is about to consume the adversaries.” (Hebrews 10:27)

67. “For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay.” (Hebrews 10:37)

68. “For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the one that is about to come.” (Hebrews 13:14)

69. “Speak and so act, as those who are about to be judged by the law of liberty.” (James 2:12)

70. “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure!” (James 5:1,3)

71. “Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.” (James 5:7)

72. “You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.” (James 5:8)

73. “salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:5)

74. “He has appeared in these last times for the sake of you.” (1 Peter 1:20)

75. “They shall give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.” (1 Peter 4:5)

76. “The end of all things is at hand; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.” (1 Peter 4:7)

77. “For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God.” (1 Peter 4:17)

78. “as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is about to be revealed.” (1 Peter 5:1)

79. “We have the prophetic word which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the Day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.” (2 Peter 1:19)

80. “Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.” (2 Peter 2:3)

81. “In the last days mockers will come. For this they willingly are ignorant of” (2 Peter 3:3,5)

82. “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God.” (2 Peter 3:10-12)

83. “The darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.” (1 John 2:8)

84. “The world is passing away, and its desires.” (1 John 2:17)

85. “It is the last hour.” (1 John 2:18)

86. “Even now many antichrists have arisen; from this we know that it is the last hour.” (1 John 2:18; Compare Matthew 24:23-34)

87. “This is that of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.” (1 John 4:3; Compare 2 Thessalonians 2:7)

88. “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation. About these also Enoch prophesied, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly’” (Jude 1:4,14-15)

89. “But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, ‘In the last time there shall be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.’ These are the ones who cause divisions” (Jude 1:17-19)

90. “to show to His bond-servants, the things which must shortly take place.” (Revelation 1:1)

91. “The time is near.” (Revelation 1:3)

92. “Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come.” (Revelation 2:25)

93. “I also will keep you from the hour of testing which is about to come upon the whole land.” (Revelation 3:10; cf. Matthew 2:6,20,21)

94. “I am coming quickly.” (Revelation 3:11)

95. “And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is about to rule all the nations with a rod of iron.” (Revelation 12:5)

96. “And in her [the Great City Babylon] was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth.” (Revelation 18:24; Compare Matthew 23:35-36; Luke 11:50-51)

97. “to show to His bond-servants the things which must shortly take place.” (Revelation 22:6)

98. “Behold, I am coming quickly. “ (Revelation 22:7)

99. “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.” (Revelation 22:10; Compare Daniel 8:26)

100. “Behold, I am coming quickly.” (Revelation 22:12)

101. “Yes, I am coming quickly.” (Revelation 22:20)

All of these verses concerned those who lived in the first century, not those who would live thousands of years later (though we can certainly learn some general principles from every verse of Scripture, even ones that weren't intended directly for us). The imminent destruction of the temple and judgment of those who rejected the Messiah is a dominant theme of the New Testament, and was a top priority in the minds of Christians in those days.

Thanks to David Green for putting together these verses.

He adds:

There are clearly many verses in the New Testament which inescapably point to an event or events that would occur in the first century. Another question which might be raised is this: is there a single verse in the Bible which inescapably predicts an event that would occur in the 21st century or later, and can be interpreted in no other way?

What's At Stake

There are two things at stake.

First is the trustworthiness of Scripture. Atheists have figured this out. Christian apologists need to deal with it. Here is the issue:

It is the pervasive teaching of the New Testament that Jesus was coming soon. On almost every page, we are told that Jesus would end the old age and begin the new before those who were His eye-witnesses were dead:

The Son of Man is about to come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and will then recompense every man according to his deeds. There are some of those who are standing here who shall not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. (Matthew 16:27-28; cf. Mark 9:1; Luke 9:27)

New Testament readers were anticipating the end of the old and the beginning of "the New Heavens and the New Earth" (2 Peter 3). Incredible, miraculous, unprecedented things

• were "about to" happen.
• To "this generation."
• The end was "at hand."

Either they happened, or the New Testament writers (and those who believed them)

• Were Wrong
• Were Mistaken
• Are Untrustworthy

This is a very serious issue, and many atheists have recognized what's at stake.

Atheist Bertrand Russell, in his book Why I Am Not A Christian, discredits the inspiration of the New Testament based on the failed prediction of Christ and the Apostles:

I am concerned with Christ as He appears in the Gospels . . . and there one does find some things that do not seem to be very wise. For one thing, He certainly thought that His second coming would occur in clouds of glory before the death of all the people who were living at the time. There are a great many texts that prove that. He says, for instance, "Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come." Then He says, "There are some standing here which shall not taste death till the Son of Man comes into His kingdom"; and there are a lot of places where it is quite clear that He believed that His second coming would happen during the lifetime of many then living. That was the belief of his earlier followers, and it was the basis of a good deal of his moral teaching. [1] 

Russell is correct when he says that much of the New Testament was based on the belief that the Kingdom and end of the age were "at hand." If Christ and the Apostles were teaching the imminent destruction of planet earth and the inauguration of the "eternal state," then they were clearly mistaken.

There have been various responses by Christians to this criticism of the Christian faith. Among these, one is particularly striking. We get a profound impression of just what a challenge this argument is to the integrity of the Christian faith when we realize that a great Christian thinker and apologist such as C.S. Lewis despaired at finding a solution to it. Lewis surrendered to the assertion of the skeptics that Jesus was wrong. He attributed this to the limited knowledge Jesus had in His incarnate human form. He correctly pointed out that Jesus himself said, in Matthew 24:36, that He did not know the exact time when He would return:

“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.”

Lewis despairingly wrote,

“He said in so many words, 'this generation shall not pass till all these things be done.' And he was wrong. He clearly knew no more about the end of the world than anyone else. This is certainly the most embarrassing verse in the Bible."[2]

To this, the skeptic may reply, “If Jesus incorrectly predicted His return within the contemporaneous generation, but actually did not know that He was going to return within that time frame, then why did He so confidently assert that all of the words He had just spoken would come to pass in Matthew 24:35? He said, ‘Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.’ ”

Recently, Christians like R.C. Sproul have suggested that most -- and maybe even all -- of these "any moment" verses were fulfilled when Jerusalem was destroyed and the age of the Old Covenant terminated. If this is true, then the Bible can be trusted. If not, then Christians need to come up with an answer for people like Bertrand Russell.

Read these verses. Read them in context in your own Bible if you think we're taking them out of context.

Get the big picture.

Take this issue seriously.

Admit that this is a question that needs to be answered.

Once this issue is dealt with, and we admit that the Scriptures were consistently preterist, then we need to ask how this fact changes the way we live out our lives. I suggest here that any claim that Jesus is not fully reigning and fulfilling "Messianic prophecies" in this age -- before any future "Second Coming" --  is "anti-Christ."  I suggest here that preterism means our duty in this life is to build the City of God, the "New Jerusalem."

When I present my case for Preterism, they can't refute it. They can't give me a single verse to support their view or to refute an idea which they furiously believe is a damnable heresy. The emotion and passion directed against preterism is inversely proportional to the Scriptural support for an event thousands of years in the future (the basis for opposition to preterism).

I believe the New Testament says that Christ's Second Coming was a coming in judgment against the same generation that witnessed His First Coming.

That judgment happened in the years 66-70 A.D.

The New Testament has a great deal to say about this event. It is a major theme. Yet most church-goers have never heard of it, and certainly haven't heard about it as often as it is talked about in the pages of the New Testament.

Read every verse in the Bible that talks about this event. Verses like these:

Luke 21:20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. ²¹ Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. ²² For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. ²³ But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. ²⁴ And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

Matthew 21:40-41,43,45: When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers? '....He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers, who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.' ....Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and be given to a nation producing the fruit of it.' ....When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them.

Matthew 22:7: But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.

Matthew 24:1-3: Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

Jesus predicted that His Coming in judgment would occur before that generation died out:

Matthew 16:27-28  The Son of Man is about to come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and will then recompense every man according to his deeds. There are some of those who are standing here who shall not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. (cf. Mark. 8:38 - 9:1; Luke 9:26-27)

Matthew 24:34: This generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

This prophesied destruction is one of the biggest themes in the New Testament, yet most church-goers have never heard of it, or know what happened in AD 70. But virtually every church-goer knows all kinds of interesting things about an event in our future, concerning which not a single verse of Scripture was intended by its author to reveal.

This is the great irony: the less Scripture, the more passion, and the more "damnable" the claim of preterists. If it's really that "damnable," shouldn't there be more Scripture to confirm this?

There are more than 100 verses in the New Testament which say that the Second Coming would occur within 40 years (one generation).

These verses are very clear.

Basic rules of interpreting Scripture include
     (1) put the verse in context
     (2) interpret unclear verses in light of clearer verses

The context of the New Testament is the "any moment" return of Christ. It is a dominant theme in the New Testament. It was on everyone's mind.
The timing is very clear. Any verse which speaks of the Second Coming of Christ which is not as clear in stating the timing should be interpreted in light of the many verses which more clearly state the timing.

Following these well-accepted rules of "hermeneutics" (rules for interpreting written texts), it becomes clear (to me, anyway) that the only thing on the mind of the writers of the New Testament was the imminent return of Christ in their generation; there is not a single verse in the New Testament which was intended by its author and understood by its original audience to be prophesying an event thousands of years in the future (in our future).

Let me repeat that:

The New Testament writers were focused on events that would take place in their generation.

If I stood in your pulpit and read the dozens of verses that speak of an "any moment" coming of Christ, then asked for a verse which predicts another coming of Christ thousands of years in the future, I'll bet that nobody in your congregation could name a single verse which cannot rationally and faithfully be understood to be speaking of an event in our past. And yet they would all agree, strongly, that my view is "heretical" and "unBiblical."

Preterism vs. Futurism:
Which Theory Brings the Greater Glory to God?

The word "Preterism" comes from the Latin word for "past."

Every Bible-believing Christian is a "preterist" when it comes to interpreting Isaiah 7:14, which predicts the virgin birth of Christ. Matthew 1:23 teaches that this prophecy was fulfilled in our past. There's no evidence in the Bible that there will be a future fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14. A "preterist" interpretation is orthodoxy.

"Full Preterism" or "Consistent Preterism" teaches that there are no events in the Bible which are prophesied to occur after A.D. 70, when the temple was destroyed in Jerusalem and the Old Covenant came to a complete end. The consistent preterist believes there are no prophecies in the Bible that remain to be fulfilled in our future. All were fulfilled in the past. This is decidedly not orthodox.

Some full preterists teach that while all prophecies have been fulfilled, some prophecies predicted the inauguration of nowon-going conditions. Isaiah 65 predicts a "New Heavens and New Earth." A preterist can hold that this new world was inaugurated in the past, but is also a "world without end" (Isaiah 45:17; Ephesians 3:21, KJV). Similarly, the age predicted in Isaiah 2 and Micah 4 is said to be one which, while inaugurated in our past, continues into our future, "from now on, even forever" (Micah 4:7). The government of Christ was established in our past, but
       "Of the increase of His government and peace
       There will be no end"
       (Isaiah 9:6-7).

Some theologians have come to preterist conclusions, but don't call themselves "full preterists." They put the traditions of the church on a par with Scripture. So they might say that while the New Testament is dominated by prophecies about the coming of Christ in vengeance against the Jews in AD70, and while there are no prophecies about any events in our future, they still believe in a future coming of Christ "because Holy Mother the Church has taught that doctrine for 2,000 years." I call such theologians "ecclesiastical preterists."

The question should always be, "What saith the Lord," and in particular, "What saith Scripture."

Let's suppose that the full preterists make a prima facie case for their view, and futurists make a prima facie case for their perspective. One way to decide between two equally-Scriptural views might be to ask, "Which view gives greater glory to God?

"Christian Reconstruction" is the view that Christians should work to make society more obedient to God's Laws in the Bible. For Vine & Fig Tree University, this means accelerating and enlarging the fulfillment of Micah's “Vine & Fig Tree” prophecy (Micah 4:1-7).

"Christian Reconstructionists" tend to be preterists. Futurists tend to oppose Christian Reconstruction.

Hal Lindsey is a well-known futurist, and wrote back in 1970:

There used to be a group called "postmillennialists." They believed that the Christians would root out all the evil in the world, abolish godless rulers, and convert the world through ever-increasing evangelism until they brought about the Kingdom of God through their own efforts. Then after 1000 years of the institutional church reigning on earth with peace, equality and righteousness, Christ would return and time would end. These people rejected much of the Scripture as being literal and believed in the inherent goodness of man. World War I greatly disheartened this group and World War II virtually wiped out this viewpoint. No self-respecting scholar who looks at the world conditions and the accelerating decline of Christian influence today is a "postmillennialist."
Hal Lindsey, The Late, Great Planet Earth, 1970, p. 176

The idea that Christians would bring about the Kingdom of God "through their own efforts" is a real red-flag for Christians like Hal Lindsey. They say it reeks of "secular humanism."

"Christian Reconstruction" was not well-known back in 1970. Lindsey was speaking more of liberals and progressives in the early part of the 20th century who promoted "the social gospel." His criticisms miss the point if directed toward Bible-believing inerrantists, 5-point Calvinists, and 6-day creationists like the Christian Reconstructionists.

Futurists tend to be "New Testament Christians," while Christian Reconstructionists put an emphasis on the whole Bible, from cover to cover, including the Old Testament.

Most Futurists today believe Jesus came to give us a ticket to heaven when we die. In the meantime, Satan rules the planet. Their story of the Bible goes like this:

• God created planet earth;
• God put human beings on earth to be good stewards, and transform the Garden of Eden into the City of God;
• Satan tempted man;
• Man rebelled against God, choosing to be his own god instead;
• Satan now controls the world;
• Jesus came to de-throne Satan and reign as the Messiah, but the Jews rejected Him;
• He promises to come back and try again
• In the meantime, things are going to get worse and worse;
• Satan has successfully ruled this planet for the last 6,000 years, including 2,000 years since the first coming of Jesus;
• At His second coming, Jesus sits on a throne in Jerusalem, reigning as Messiah.
• But His reign only lasts 1,000 years when Satan leads a rebellion.
• Jesus can tell that Satan and man are not playing God's game by God's rules, and Satan is going to win the game, so Jesus decides to take his cosmic football and go home. History ends.

In other words, Satan wins.

Pretty dismal story, isn't it?

Not much of a "gospel" ("good news") is it?

Sure, God sent His Son, who died on the cross, so that some of the players can be forgiven for their rebellion and go home with God, but God's original purposes for man and the creation were thwarted by Satan, the ultimate victor.

Didn't God know that His plan of giving human beings dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:26-28) was doomed to failure?

Didn't God know that His plan of sending His Son to establish a Kingdom of Peace would be defeated by Satan and the human beings that Satan won to his false gospel?

The popular Christian writer Dave Hunt has written:

In fact, dominion – taking dominion and setting up the kingdom of Christ – is an impossibility, even for God. The millennial reign of Christ, far from being the kingdom, is actually the final proof of the incorrigible nature of the human heart, because Christ Himself can’t do it.[1]

"Impossible even for God." Wow.

The Creator's idea of creating man in His Own Image and telling man to exercise dominion over the earth, converting the earth to God's Temple, building the City of God, was a mistake. Progress is not possible. Only regress. Earth is a failure. Jesus' prayer ("Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven") is just tilting at Satanic windmills. As Hal Lindsey put it, "Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth." And always will be. Poor God.

In contrast to a "futurism" (which really has no future), is a radical preterism. It looks like this:

• Christians follow Christ's "Great Commission" and continue to evangelize, disciple converts, and reconstruct society along Biblical lines.
• B.B. Warfield, a towering figure among Reformed theologians, came to the conclusion that before Christ's Second Coming (in our future; Warfield was a "partial preterist," not a "full preterist") Christ's church would discharge the Great Commission and the Holy Spirit would convert every human being on planet earth, so that
       the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD,
       As the waters cover the sea.
       Habakkuk 2:14
• Warfield was an opponent of "perfectionism," but let us suppose that an obedient church not only preaches the gospel and sees the world converted, but makes disciples of the converts, teaching them to observe all that Christ commanded, and just as the church saw fruit in perfect evangelism/justification, the church's work is blessed by the Holy Spirit and the world experiences perfect discipleship/sanctification, and a universally converted world is also a perfectly obedient sanctified world.
• The Bible says that obedience to God's Commands brings blessings (Leviticus 26), while disobedience brings curses (Deuteronomy 28). Perfect sanctified obedience then brings unparalleled and unimaginable blessings on earth, including long life-spans (Isaiah 65), and the eradication of thorns, thistles, sweat, and pain in childbirth. And
  • Of the increase of His government and peace
    There will be no end
    (Isaiah 9:6-7).
• God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven (Mathew 6:10). That is to say, perfectly.
• A “Vine & Fig Tree” world is the result (see below).
• Again, the full expansion of God's Blessings under these circumstances is literally nothing less than "unimaginable." We can't even imagine it, just as the prophet Micah, living 700 years before the birth of Christ, could not have imagined the standard of living we enjoy 2,000 years after Christ.
• The "Last Adam" (1 Corinthians 15:45) completely triumphs over and reverses the effects of the First Adam.
• James Jordan writes,
  • The Bible pictures the earth as a house, as in Job 38:4-6. Just as the earth is pictured as a house, so is heaven. Heaven is a separate house from earth, and is the model home that earth is to imitate. We pray, therefore, "Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as in heaven." The goal of history is for heaven to impress itself on earth, so that eventually heaven and earth are one, and there is one house."
• Jordan does not deny the unbridgeable gap between the Creator and the Creation (Romans 1:25), however, some theologians have written about the "divinization of man," and perhaps also of the entire creation.

Many futurists -- even those who acknowledge that there may not be any verses of Scripture which were intended to predict an event thousands or millions of years after the closing of the canon -- believe there must be a radical, discontinuous event in our future in order to reverse the curse that was brought about by the First Adam. But this is not a claim made by the Bible itself. There's no Biblical reason why universal sanctification cannot reverse the curse.

Childbirth is an interesting case in point. When God announces that Satan's temptation has resulted in pain for women in bearing children, it is clear that this is a change from the way things originally would have been: joyful, pain-free childbirth. Futurists believe that "in the resurrection" (Matthew 22:30) there is no marriage, no sex, no childbirth. (While futurists do not take literally Paul's claim that "there is neither male nor female" [Galatians 3:28], they generally take Jesus literally on this point.) That means that during all of human history, Satan triumphs over God's original plan of joyful pain-free childbirth. Women will never experience God's original vision, not in history, nor even in eternity. Never. Satan wins.

So here's the question:

Which perspective gives more glory to God:

• A creation that was surrendered by the First Adam to be ruled by Satan, and has to be completely destroyed, in a discontinuous transition from failure in history to glory only in eternity
   or
• A creation that is re-made by the Last Adam, in history, so that the knowledge (and glory) of God covers the earth and continues to increase for an innumerable billions of years

Audio

Many critics of preterism raise the specter of good and evil living side-by-side throughout eternity. "Dualism."

Why is there still curse?
Why pain in childbirth?
Why no long life-spans?
Why didn't Jesus the Last Adam completely and instantaneously reverse every evil brought about by the First Adam?

Two answers:

   Preterism: Gradual triumph -- Process | The Messianic Kingdom Grows Gradually Over Time
   Futurism: completely discontinuous event in our future to complete this work

We've made a lot of progress Christianizing the earth, but there's still a lot of work to do.
But most Christians today want the reign of Christ to end.
Too many Christians are just standing around watching the clock, waiting for their shift to end.
But there isn't a single verse in the Bible which says that the Vine & Fig Tree world (which was "established" when the Old Covenant world came to an end [AD 70]) -- will come to an end.

• Heaven on Earth
• Heaven Now

The New Testament Scriptures are filled with this post-Easter message: Jesus is the Christ, and the first big act of His reign will be to return ("Second Coming") and take vengeance against those who murdered Him at His First Coming. The end of the Old Covenant overlapped the beginning of the New Covenant. The end of the Mosaic Age overlapped the beginning of the "New Heavens and New Earth."

It comes as a surprise to those who engage in a "Berean" study of the Bible:

Most Christians view eternity as somewhere other than earth, on the other side of "the pearly gates." But who is admitted into those pearly gates? Do you even want to spend eternity with a God and with people who believe in:

0. Bibliolatry

Some people are honest enough to admit they would rather spend eternity in hell than with people who believe these things. Everybody gets what they want. Nobody is forced to go to hell.

If you don't like the "oppressive," "patriarchal," "pre-scientific" Bible, God will not force you to spend eternity in heaven with those who love it.

Anarcho-Preterism is "the Gospel"

What is "the Gospel?"

The literal meaning of the Greek word for "Gospel" is the "good news."

So what is the "good news?" That sounds like a simple question, and most Christians could probably give a simple answer, but their answer would be, in most cases, simply inadequate. The overwhelming majority of "christians" today have a crippled view of "the Gospel."

Do I sense an impenetrable circle here?

The word "Gospel" = "Good News"
The Greek word is εὐαγγέλιον, euangélion or
εὐαγγελίζω, euangelízō
eu = good
angelizō = bring a message, from
ἄγγελος, ángelos, "angel," "messenger"

"Angel" is an interesting word:

Matthew 11:10
For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my *messenger* [angelos] before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.

2 Corinthians 12:7
And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the *messenger* [angelos] of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

Matthew 24:31
And he shall send his *messengers* [angelos] with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

So what is the "message," the "good news?"

Galatians 3:8

And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith,
preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying,

"In thee shall all nations be blessed."

That's "good news!"

What is "blessed?"
People who heard the Gospel in New Testament times knew their Bibles.
See Deuteronomy 28:1-14, Leviticus 26:3ff.

"All nations shall be blessed."

Not many people today believe that "good news."

Seems like most churches have a gloomy message:

Things are getting worse and worse, sin is multiplying in these "last days," the "Great Tribulation" and "Armageddon" are just around the corner.
But if you believe "the gospel," you can escape this wretched planet and go to heaven.

Is that really "good news?"

Why did God put us human beings on this planet in the first place?
Was that a mistake?
Should God have just left us in heaven instead of putting us on earth?

Galatians 3:8 says the gospel -- the "good news" -- is:

"All nations shall be blessed."

What is "blessed?"

Leviticus 26 ties "blessing" to the point I made above, regarding "capitalism" and "socialism."

Some churches teach that "blessing" is "spiritual." But the Bible says that to be "blessed" means to live in a "capitalistic" society, free from socialists, "brown shirts," and tribute collectors.

Leviticus 26:3 ‘If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments,
and perform them, ... you shall ... dwell in your land safely.
6 I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down,
and none will make you afraid;
I will rid the land of evil beasts,
and the sword will not go through your land.

"None will make you afraid" reminds me of Micah's “Vine & Fig Tree” prophecy (Micah 4:1-7).

"The sword" = armed agents of "The State"

"The sword" is not "good news." See the verses here.

Our goal is to turn the entire planet into the City of God, so that God's will is done in earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10)

"The Gospel" is the "good news" that if we let God be our governor, there will be "Peace on Earth" (Luke 2:14).

God is your governor if you are governed by His Word.

Jesus is your Messiah if you obey Him as King.

Jesus is not your King if you vote for another king (1 Samuel 8).

The word "gospel" means "good news." In the Bible, the "good news" is that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.

From cover to cover, the Bible is an "Anarchist Manifesto" and urges mankind to eradicate the institution of "civil government" or "the State." It will take approximately 90 minutes for me to lay out my arguments and for you to follow them Biblically in a loving (1 Corinthians 13:5-7) way.

Every government on earth agrees: The Bible is an "Anarchist Manifesto."

Argument against Anarcho-Pacifism = "criminals will take over"

really? More people will die under pacifism than under archism?
More money will be confiscated under pacifism than under archists?

Theocracy is the necessary precondition for anarchism. The abolition of the State requires society-wide moral elevation. Not because we can only survive and thrive in the absence of  the State only if there are no bad guys to threaten us, but because the people who worry in this way will never vote against violence unless they first trust God.

If you take Jesus seriously, you will not only be a "pacifist," but you'll be an "anarchist" -- that is, an advocate of no "elected representatives." No "civil government." "The Bible as our only law book."

If Jesus commands you to

• "Render unto Caesar," that is, to pay taxes demanded by your enemy who invaded your country, slaughtered thousands of your countrymen, and put your country under tribute (an undemocratic military occupation government that enslaves and pillages your people),
• and subject yourselves to their tyranny, going a "second mile" of conscripted labor,

why would you not obey the command to beat your swords into plowshares? Why would you not be a "pacifist?"
Jesus said, When the enemy government enslaves you for one mile, Go a second mile (Matthew 5:41). If you take this verse seriously, it means "national defense" is a sin.