Ours or Theirs: Reformation is on the Table

Christian reconstruction teaches that cultural renewal is an expected outworking of the Gospel. When Jesus said "make disciples of all nations," He meant it literally.

ChristianRF.com

Christian Reconstruction, the sibling to Dominionism as both stand front and center for the "True American Holy Christian Church" are defining the "make" in Jesus’ words in the same way the early Catholic missionaries "made" disciples of the Incas and Aztecs: Evangelizing replaced with coercion.

Robert Parsons writes the site manifesto.

Christian Reconstruction is a call to the Church to awaken to its biblical responsibility to revival and the reformation of society. While holding to the priority of individual salvation, Christian Reconstruction also holds that cultural renewal is to be the necessary and expected outworking of the gospel as it progressively finds success in the lives and hearts of men. Christian Reconstruction therefore looks for and works for the rebuilding of the institutions of society according to a biblical blueprint.

How should the whole of society perceive this concept? There does not appear to be much room for non-Christians and the diversity of ours or any society seems ignored here.

Christian Reconstruction is also an attempt to answer the unprecedented threat facing the Church of Jesus Christ in the 20th century resurgence of secular humanism and parallel rise of statism. The state threatens to swallow the Church ...

Whether or not this kind of rhetoric plays in the corner churches in Peoria and Pocatello, it is a reflection of how the signals from the "most high" - the political activist Christians and their Republican allies - are received, interpreted and expounded upon.

Parsons declares that the two fatal errors facing the Church are retreat and accommodation.

Retreat is failing to apply the Word of God to society and culture ... Accommodation is misapplying the Word of God in society and culture ... The Christian Reconstruction movement has been raised up by God to awaken the Church to the reality of these two fatal errors.

This is typical Old Testament thinking, the kind of thinking prevalent in the religious society and political circumstance into which Jesus came. It is the aggressive self-righteous anger against Roman Rule and gentiles that typified the deteriorated sense of what it means to be a chosen people. Had Jesus followed the logic of this position we would read today a history of Jesus joining and supporting the Pharisee's and using his biblical super powers to overrule Rome and commence the imposition of God's sovereignty..

Following this logic, the resultant "catholic" church would have been the religious and political sovereignty of God and remained in power to this day - supported by, as Parsons writes, "God's supreme power and rule." There would have been no need for Protestant Reformation and later Christian Reconstruction.

How is it that the God of sovereignty had to wait 2000 years after his Son gave Christians their militant marching orders. Why now but not then?

Where does that leave the traditional Christians and Protestants and their ancestors who trusted in a version of Jesus that spoke primarily of compassion and forgiveness and straightly commanded disciples not to judge? Following Reconstructionist logic, years and lifetimes of faith and belief in the Jesus of the New Testament have come to naught.

God exercises His sovereignty through many secondary agencies. For example, civil government is responsible to God to bear the sword, executing God's wrath against violators of His Law.

Jesus did not say that. He said,

"Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, might, mind and strength. Love thy neighbor as thyself."

There's not much there from which to imply that Jesus was as focused on the wrath of God as are these contemporary Pharisees. In fact, such beliefs and attitudes suggest a different deterioration of Christian thinking over 2000 years. These advocacies represent nothing less than the victory the Pharisees sought when they arranged for the Romans to put Jesus and his teachings to death. Have the Pharisees finally won?

Parson's "pillars" that rest on the foundation of God's sovereignty are

(1) Redemption/Justification :
All men are disobedient and worthy of eternal separation from God in Hell.

(2) The Law of God in every sphere of society :
This is the sovereignty of God in ethics ... The perfect standard of the Law shows us how we are to live, how far short we fall and how much we need a Savior.

(3) Presuppositionalism :
Presuppositionalism is the self-sufficiency of an authoritative Bible. This is the sovereignty of God in revelation ... Instead of a focus on persuasion with facts and logic, Christian Reconstruction challenges the natural man, who presumes himself to be the ultimate judge of truth. The sword of the Spirit does not need to be proved, it needs to be used.

(4) Assurance of Earthly Victory :
This is the sovereignty of God in history. The Bible insists that God's Law is to hold full sway in every sphere of earthly activity, in history as well as eternity,

There was a time when we might have safely read this stuff and gone back to the comic strips. The extreme goals of these people who've been empowered by more than mere electoral success may never be accomplished. These goals remain today perceived by most as those of an extreme Christian minority.

Yet, how hard was it to arouse a sufficient number of sleeping Christians to assure an election victory?

What are the real intentions of the majority of House and Senate Republicans elected by constituencies apparently supportive of societal changes to the degree that any other political worthiness, ability or skill was secondary?

Movement in the direction of Christian Reconstruction - in whatever form evolves - will continue unabated so long as the other slumbering Christians view the whole thing with apathy?

Literalism openly defined and advocated:

What are Christian Home -Schoolers teaching their children?

American Destiny.com

"Marshall Foster is the founder and president of the Mayflower Institute, a nonprofit educational foundation dedicated to teaching the biblical and historical foundations of liberty. The Mayflower Institute’s purpose from its conception in 1976, has been to proclaim Christ’s gospel of liberty, as America’s founders envisioned; to prepare Christians to defend the faith in all spheres of culture; and to teach God’s biblical and historical strategy for renewing a nation beginning with the individual and overflowing into the family, church, city, and eventually the entire nation."

In 1981, the Mayflower Institute published The American Covenant - the Untold Story by Marshall Foster and Mary-Elaine Swanson. This is one of the primary civics texts for Christian Home School study.

Parsons quotes Marshall Foster

In The American Covenant, Marshall Foster observes that the implications of which view you hold are profound :

"If you see God as ruling the earth :

1. Your commission is to subdue the earth and build Christian nations through evangelizing and discipleship.

2. You see Christian culture to be the only acceptable culture and you see all others as aberrations.

3. All of God's world is holy and every activity in life is a religious activity to be seen as a spiritual work for God.

4. Reformation is expected.

If you see Satan as ruling the earth :

1. You must just concentrate on saving souls from this evil world.

2. You see Christian culture as a counter-culture, a persecuted minority in an evil world.

3. Church activity is primary and spiritual, while worldly pursuits are secular and to be dealt with only as a necessity.

4. Reformation is impossible and suspect, since things must get worse before Christ returns."

Parsons continues to his conclusion:

The above dichotomy illustrates the importance of ideas in determining consequences, because to the degree Christians have abdicated their leadership role and denied the "crown rights of Jesus Christ," to that degree the humanists have filled the void.

In summation, Christian Reconstruction is the only view that biblically answers the question of how Christians should relate to their culture.

Not RETREAT, that fails to apply the Bible to the problems of society (Fatal Error #1).

Not ACCOMMODATION, that misapplies the Bible to endorse various forms of humanism (Fatal Error #2).

But RECONSTRUCTION according to the Law of God.

Individual salvation is the necessary priority, but Christian Reconstruction teaches that cultural renewal is an expected outworking of the Gospel. When Jesus said "make disciples of all nations," He meant it literally. The very cultural/govern-mental fabric of the nations is to be transformed by the preservative effect of their Christian citizens. This is the vision of the Reformers, the Puritans and the Pilgrims. This is the vision that we must rekindle anew today.

This proposed vision and method has its precise counterpart that experienced its own degree of success and disaster:

The Taliban in Afghanistan.

There is no difference.