The Feminist Reconstruction of History

https://stream.org/a-friend-of-phyllis-schlafly-reviews-the-tv-slander-series/

Creation and Preservation as Distinquishing Marks of Biblical and Unbiblical Ethical Paradigms

I have attempted to argue over the past twenty years that biblical ethics are creational ethics. They are rooted in the creation mandate of Genesis 1, and that this distinguishes biblical ethics from those around the world.

One sees this in the modern world as well. The push in our culture toward birth control and abortion is a sure sign that we have adopted an unbiblical ethical paradigm that runs counter to that of the Bible.

In the Babylonian creation-flood story Atra-Hasis, the author argues that preservation is primary by placing the lives of those who are already alive and well over the lives of future persons. The way to preserve life and flourishing is at the expense of future people, and thus, population must be controlled by limiting one's children in one way or another.

In Genesis, this is the mark of the seed of the serpent displayed in the genealogy of Cain. In Cain's genealogy, preservation is prioritized in the activity of those mentioned. The building of cities, the accumulation of wealth through livestock and trade, the construction of instruments for relaxation and leisure and the forging of weapons for war that both defends from attack and preserves life through plunder. Cain's line, however, is portrayed as anticreational in that he himself is a murderer of his brother and the last man mentioned in his line shares his anticreational activity in that he kills a young boy as well.

It should be understood that by "anticreational" I do not mean to suggest that one ethic has within it a creational aspect and the other a preservational aspect. Both ethics have both creation and preservation as a part of their ethic. It is a matter of what takes priority over the other in ethical conduct and reasoning. Obviously, each person in Cain's line has at least one or two children and part of the creation mandate in Genesis 1 and 2 is to subdue and cultivate the earth as a liveable place that preserves covenant human life. The issue is one of priority, then, so that when confronted with the option, the seed of the woman, the image of God, is focused on the creation of life over its focus on the preservation of life, which is viewed as an issue of trusting in God when such dilemmas arise.

Hence, Seth's genealogy only mentions the one trait of each person as having multiple children, not because they were unconcerned about preservation, but in order to show the focus of the one group over the other as prioritizing creation over preservation.

Hence, in the biblical flood narrative, it is not the population of mankind that is a threat to its existence but hamas "chaos," i.e., the activity of violence toward the creation mandate, which is a lack of prioritizing creational living itself. Hence, the flood narrative ends with a charge to keep creation as a priority as the work of the image.

Likewise, when conflict arises between creation and preservation, the answer is to find preservational solutions that do not interfere with the creation mandate but rather would fulfill it. Hence, when the population of Abraham's and Lot's tribes become too large, the solution is not population control but to spread out. When men come together in large populations and have a preservational focus, they tend toward the original sin of thinking they have the divine right to control order and chaos in the world through their own means of preservation, as evidenced in the incident at Babel. God's solution is to spread them out rather than to limit their numbers.

What we have today is the same problem. The existence of birth control and abortion in our culture is due to one thing and one thing only, a prioritization of preservation over creation, and thus, our culture, both secular and sacred, have turned from the biblical creational ethic and have instead adopted the ethics of Cain, the serpent's seed, and not that of the image. The remedy of this is to put our full faith in God in obedience to the creation ethic and seek to find solutions of preservation that do not interfere with the creation of covenant human life.

Brainstorming the Beginnings of a Future Book

I don't know when I'll ever write this, but I have always wanted to do it. These are just some chapters I would like to write as a result of studying these issues over the past thirty years. If you can think of any other issues to address, let me know. The first is just my working title of the book and each chapter name is just to remind me of what I want to discuss in each chapter.

A Broken Reed: The Pseudoscience of Modern Biblical Scholarship in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century

The Façade of Modern Scholarship as Science versus Religion Rather Than Religion versus Religion/ Scholarship as an Apologetic for an Enlightenment Worldview

Fallacies in Presuppositional Methodology and the Imposition of Foreign Ultimate Beliefs in Biblical Scholarship

Source Criticism as Lazy Scholarship and Its Non Sequiturs

The Fallacies of Form Criticism as Context Replacement and the Diachronic Fallacies of Biblical Scholarship Represented in Lexical Studies

Hegelian Approaches to Biblical Theology and the Actual Evidence of Textual Histories of the Hebrew Bible

The Bauer Thesis, New Testament Textual Criticism and the Christian Doctrine of Inspiration and Inerrancy 

Fallacies in Reading the Text: The Misuse of Biblical Background Information as Context Replacement and the Reconstruction of the Text into a Liberal Bible

Redemption

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." Romans 8:1-4

A Grim Epiphany

As I walked through the darkened halls of the decaying wood, a disturbing howl that screeched in my ears haunted my every step. Approaching ever closer as I walked forward, it became louder and louder until it unbearably pierced every thought and intention. 

At last, in the dusky hollow of withered trees, I came upon a dark figure robed in black, holding a sickle. 

 

This dark being, this murderous creature, from whom I averted my eyes in life now met me here in my final hour. 

“I have come to relieve the earth of you,” he said. His voice was that of the horrible sound that filled the wood and had caused what once flourished to die.

I answered, “I have made my plans for the future. I have not yet taken all the world could offer me. What foul thing would take a man from his happiness? Truly, you are a hateful creature to be loathed by all who would live on if they were but permitted.”

“Approach,” he commanded. And so I did, and when I looked into his face, to my horror, I saw that it was my own. Upon his sickle were written all of my sins, the kind committed by all men from Adam down that have brought the world to ruin, pleasures taken at its expense, evils that creation could no longer endure. 

It was not some dark angel or even God Himself that all my life I had dreaded to meet in this despairing place after all, for I was the only murderer here. 

I bowed my head, the sickle fell, and the rotted wood turned green and silent.

The Similarities and Distinctions between Modern Social Justice and Biblical Justice

Many use biblical passages that refer to justice to argue that the Bible supports modern ideas about social justice, and hence, so should Christians. This is a classic case of cultic thinking where a word is being redefined and then the Bible is said to support the concept due the fact that it uses the word. Here is a list of some ideas that show continuity and discontinuity between the biblical and modern ideas of justice.

Social Justice	Biblical Justice
Inclusivity of All Races	Inclusivity of All Races
Indiscriminate Inclusivity of All Genders	Inclusivity of All Genders in Salvation, Exclusivity in Gender Roles
Inclusivity of All Religions	Exclusivity of Orthodox Christianity
Inclusivity of All Forms of Sexuality	Exclusivity of Ordered Sexuality between One Male and One Female
Justice Is Equality: Giving Everyone the Same Opportunities Regardless of Their Labor or What Has Been Given by God	Justice Is Giving Everyone What They Have Earned or Been Given by God
Justice Is Equity: Giving Everyone the Same Privilege and Lifestyle as Everyone Else Regardless of What Has Been Earned or Given by God	Justice Is Giving Everyone Exactly What They Have Earned or Been Given by God
Acceptance Is Based on the Valuable Nature of General Humanity	Acceptance Is Based on the Valuable Nature of Jesus Christ and His Work, which Excludes All Outside of Christ
Mercy Is Unneeded Since Justice Already Includes It	Mercy Is Needed Since Justice Excludes All Because of Their Sin, and Only Includes Those Who Are in Christ
Justice Demands That What Is Given Brings about Equality and Equity, Which Decides the Amount of What Is Given/Sacrificed	Mercy Is Giving to Someone What They Have Not Justly Acquired for Themselves, and the Amount of What Is Given/Sacrificed Is Decided by the One Who Has Mercy

Conclusion: Social Justice and Biblical Justice are not the same thing. Hence, when the Bible talks about doing justice and being just, it is not supporting modern theories of social justice, which is simply a distorted idea of justice that is assumed by the Enlightenment religion inclusivism and its egalitarian ethics. Biblical Justice allows for mercy, but mercy is the free gift of the giver and not a demanded measure dictated by an egalitarian view of justice.

Calvin's Theology of Sanctification Resulting from Union with Christ

In relation to the various ‘types’ of Christian theologies of participation, Calvin’s approach is distinctive. He sees participation in Christ as constituted by the duplex gratia, the graces of justification and sanctification, which are inseparable but distinguishable. Against Catholic and Orthodox theologies of impartation, Calvin believes that justification is accomplished by God’s free pardon in imputation. While there is a sense in which imputation is a forensic act—as in Melanchthon—Calvin’s account of imputation is inextricably tied to union with Christ: believers come to ‘possess’ Christ and his righteousness.

In the second grace of participation in Christ—namely, sanctification— Calvin draws deeply upon earlier patristic and medieval theologies of participation as impartation. To participate in Christ, for Calvin, always involves a grateful fulfillment of the law of love, empowered by the life-giving Spirit. This participation takes place in the communal context of the church and its sacramental life, which is connected to an interrelated set of outwardly moving loves . . . Calvin eschews the Plotinian tradition of participation through a momentary ecstasy of the solitary contemplative. Participation in Christ—and hence the richest language about union with God in Christ through the Spirit—is always connected for Calvin with the life of horizontal love. Calvin’s theology of human love and sanctification speaks in terms of the impartation and infusion of the Spirit, such that the human and her capacities are used through the Spirit. Yet, acts of human love never ‘merit’ justification or eternal life—they are a response of voluntary praise to God.

In the eschaton, believers will regain their primal participation in God, yet in an even more profound way of participation, since they have been made one with Christ through the Spirit. United to God, the second grace of sanctification will reach its culmination, thus fulfilling the union which was already achieved by faith through the first grace. As such, believers will be ex-sinners, united to God, having received by grace that which the Son has by nature. Yet, even in this final state, the ground for union with God will be God’s gratuitous favour.

Thus, through examining the development, scope, and metaphysics of Calvin’s theology of ‘participation in Christ’, I argue that Calvin’s theology of participation emerges from a soteriology which affirms a differentiated union of God and humanity in creation and redemption. Through his engagement with biblical and catholic sources (especially Irenaeus, Augustine, and Cyril of Alexandria), Calvin develops a wide-ranging and emphatic doctrine of participation. In prayer, the sacraments, and obedience to the law, believers are incorporated into the Triune life: as believers are made ‘completely one’ with Christ by faith, the Father is revealed as generous by his free pardon, and the Spirit empowers believers for lives of gratitude. In this way, Calvin’s strong account of divine agency enables, rather than undercuts, human agency in sanctification. Grace fulfills rather than destroys nature, so that believers may ‘participate in God’, the telos of creation. Moreover, ‘participation in Christ’ is inseparable from participation in loving relationships of social mutuality and benevolence, both in the church and beyond its walls. At every stage, Calvin’s account of participation in Christ is grounded in a participatory vision of human activity and flourishing. (J. Todd Billings, Calvin, Participation, and the Gift: The Activity of Believers in Union with Christ, 15–17)