As the Waters Cover the Sea, 2

Continued from "As the Waters Cover the Sea"

One the Church's needs today includes present day Joshuas and Calebs -- farseeing individuals who will educate themselves in the Biblical theory and methodology of knowledge and who will digest the seminal works that set out Biblical paradigms for various fields (law, government, economics, art, music, literature and the sciences) and then pass the legacy on to others. As pastors, church officers, Sunday school teachers or leaders of other church ministries, they must whet the flock's appetite for a godly understanding of every facet of life.

Those with a stake in the status quo -- including professional ministers and teachers -- will oppose them. For this reason self discipline and self motivation will mark this vanguard, and the going will not be easy.

Consider, for example, a former student of mine who caught the vision of grounding all his knowledge in Scripture. He used to visit me every time he came home from the prominent evangelical college where he studied. He would share with me his frustration at profs who opened class with a verse of Scripture and a word of prayer and then opened a humanist text and taught the class from the same perspective one could find in any secular humanist school.

This student voluntarily undertook a dualist education. He listened carefully in class, but when he returned to his dorm, he would study with his Bible in hand to unlearn everything he learned in class. Then he would relearn it from the perspective of Scripture. He earnestly pursued this strenuous practice, although the stress of it exacted its toll on him in terms of his health.

He went on to graduate school and became a respected professional in his field. Nevertheless, his commitment to remain faithful to his God in the realms of knowledge cost him the strength of his youth. If the Lord calls you into the battle to appropriate all knowledge to His glory, then you must also face the personal costs and sacrifices for such a life calling.

You will engage the enemy in this war of conquest, so you will need to face the reality of that war. With wars come casualties; people suffer. And because the enemy recognizes the far-reaching consequences of ideas, he will not permit us the luxury of ivory-tower somnambulance. Although he will most certainly engage us in our flesh and spirit, he will not prevail.

As the Waters Cover the Sea

The following post represents a second draft of the fifth chapter of my book Christian Methodology. In it, I discuss the means and the standards Christians should use to appropriate knowledge possessed by unbelievers in the prevailing culture.

It will take a number of installments to complete this chapter, and you will have an opportunity to participate in the editorial process as I prepare this chapter for inclusion in the published version of Christian Methodology.

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:9)

For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 2:14)

Israel, as a mighty wave, flowed out of Egypt and across the wilderness. She stood poised to run upon the land of Canaan like a flood. Her people had the potential to sweep away the old, effete pagan culture and to replace it with a society in harmony with the character of Yaweh, Lord of the covenant.

Their covenant Lord had liberated them from their enslavement to the Egyptian gods and culture. On Sinai, He had given them a blueprint for a new society -- a redeemed one. True greatness lay within their grasp.

Similarly, the Church of our Lord Jesus sits encamped on the frontiers of opportunity. Heir to generations of development with respect to the application of biblical truth to thought and life, New Covenant Israel possesses the basic elements  necessary to displace prevailing humanist culture with the Scriptural world and live view. The King has, in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20), issued a mandate that Christians disciple all nations and teach them to observe Christ's commands. This conquest must include a restructuring of all human knowledge in accordance with revealed paradigms.

The Church has not yet embraced the full vision of what it means to bring every thought into captivity to Christ (II Corinthians 10:5). Like the spies sent into Canaan (Numbers 13 & 14), some individuals and organizations have made forays into enemy-occupied territory, and they have reported back to us of the magnificent world available to Christ's people, if they would only exercise the will to become the Church militant once again.

Joshua and Caleb painted a glorious picture of a land that God had promised them -- one that flowed with milk and honey. Today, men like Rushdoony and Bahnsen have likewise opened our eyes to the possibilities of a culture that functions in terms of godly justice. DeMar has provided a glimpse of Scriptural political theory, and North has unfolded the possibilities inherent in a Biblical approach to economics. Nickel has demonstrated that even mathematics should be viewed from the perspective of Scripture.

These, and others like them, have barely scratched the surface. Nevertheless, they have spied out the riches of wisdom and knowledge that await us.

CONTINUED HERE