day no. 16,888: covenantal presumption vs. continuity

Romans 9:7-8

Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.

All men are sons of Adam.

Some are sons of Abraham.

Romans 5:19

For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

You cannot inherit election per se, but you can inherit elect parents.

Covenantal presumption kills.

Covenantal continuity saves.

To assume you are saved because your parents are or your grandparents were is to presume upon the covenant, not to put your faith in it.

To continue in the covenant in which you were raised by grace through faith in Christ alone saves you just as much as it saved your fathers.

Romans 11:18-22

Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

Biblically speaking, everyone is a true son or daughter of Adam by genetics, but no one is a true son or daughter of Abraham but by faith.

In other words, history is not essentially a matter of blood relation, but of covenantal relation. What is your relationship to the covenant? Are you a covenant breaker or a covenant keeper?

day no. 16,887: flooded by covenant

Genesis 1:26-28

And God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion."

When God wanted a million angels, He created a million angels; when God wanted a billion people, He created two. People are the kind of creation that can make more of its own kind and God delights in it.

God made people to make more people by covenant. Covenant was to fill the earth and subdue it. People can come together outside of covenant or come together in covenant only to fail to raise their kids according to the covenant, but God designed the world to be blessed by covenant keeping. All kids come about by covenant, some by blessing, some by curse, they are all then brought up to be either a blessing or a curse according to God’s covenant.

All that to say, there are sinful ways to conceive a child and sinful ways to raise one, but God has commanded kids to be brought forth in blessing and raised up in the blessings of Christ.

Habakkuk 2:14

For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

There is no one alive or who has ever lived who is not descended from Adam. There is no one on earth who isn't related to someone who once was on Noah's boat. Everyone has DNA drowned in covenant. God continues to flood the world with the knowledge of His Son through the recreation and regeneration of His covenant people who embrace by grace through faith the promises of His Gospel.

day no. 16,886: better to be a bit chilly with a weapon than warm without one

Luke 22:36

He said to them, “But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.”

According to Christ, it is better to be a bit chilly with a weapon than to be warm without one.

The State offers you warmth in exchange for your weapons, comfort at the cost of your compliance until they have all of the weapons and no reason to comply with any of your requests. They then take back the warmth and comfort they provided because you can't defend yourself or stop them.

1 Samuel 13:19

Now there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, “Lest the Hebrews make themselves swords or spears.”

Governments always seek to outgun the governed, beginning with their own before going beyond their own borders.

day no. 16,885: Christendom come

Matthew 6:9-10

Pray then like this: 

“Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name. 

Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.”

Ephesians 1:7-10

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Philippians 2:9-11

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Colossians 1:15-18

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

1 Corinthians 15:24-27

Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.”

Christendom come.

Thy will be done.

On earth as it is in Heaven.

Amen.

day no. 16,884: seeing the battle is only half the battle

"We as Bible-believing evangelical Christians are locked in a battle. This is not a friendly gentleman's discussion. It is a life and death conflict between the spiritual hosts of wickedness and those who claim the name of Christ. It is a conflict on the level of ideas between two fundamentally opposed views of truth and reality. It is a conflict on the level of actions between a complete moral perversion and chaos and God's absolutes. But do we really believe that we are in a life and death battle? Do we really believe that the part we play in the battle has consequences for whether or not men and women will spend eternity in hell? Or whether or not in this life people will live with meaning or meaninglessness? Or whether or not those who do live will live in a climate of moral perversion and degradation? Sadly, we must say that very few in the evangelical world have acted as if these things are true. Rather than trumpet our accomplishments and revel in our growing numbers, it would be closer to the truth to admit that our response has been a disaster." — Francis Schaeffer, The Great Evangelical Disaster (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1984), pp. 31-32

Christians are called to more than merely acknowledging the battle. It is not enough to recognize the war or calculate the stakes; it requires a fight. It would be a win for most Christians to simply see and acknowledge the extent of the insurrection of Satan, but that alone won't end the siege. Seeing the battle is only half the battle.

Enmity is hard-wired into the battle for Heaven and Earth. Michael was charged by God to evict Satan from Heaven. The Church is now charged with stamping out his presence on earth. 

There can be no peace with evil without making war with sin. Where sin is permitted to exist, the war wages on. Evil will not quit until it is stopped. It will war against goodness, truth, and beauty as long as it's ugly head can siphon gas. 

Romans 16:20

And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

It is the honor and privilege of the saints to hear the death rattle of the rattlesnake as they wash the snake venom off their boots.

day no. 16,883: the dead man who haunted Hitler

"Hitler was obsessed with Kuyper, a man who had been dead for twenty years when Hitler launched his attack on the Netherlands. What high praise for this man whose chief desire was to bring true praise and honor to the Lord Jesus." — George Grant, The Kuyperian Vision of Christ's Lordship

Kuyper was a dead man who haunted Hitler. Kuperian categorical distinction, commonly referred to as sphere sovereignty, and the kingdom of Christ were the bane of Hitler's existence. Kuyper brought the Name of Jesus to bear everywhere and that meant that anyone hellbent on treading anywhere in Christendom would break their own ankles.

"Why did Hitler fear a man that had been dead for twenty years? Hitler feared Kuyper’s view on the role of God in everyday life. For Kuyper believed that God continually influenced the life of believers, and daily events could show his workings. As Kuyper famously said, 'Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!''” — George Grant, The Kuyperian Vision of Christ's Lordship

All of Christ for all of life is a tough nut to crack and people who live that way are not easy to bribe or battle. A people who push Christ to the corner of everything will have a place that is defended from top to bottom, side to side, front to back by the Word of God. A pillar of fire by night and a cloud of smoke by daybreak makes for timid neighbors.

"Kuyper lived out this notion and helped create a culture completely juxtaposed to the world order that Hitler had hoped to impose." — George Grant, The Kuyperian Vision of Christ's Lordship

A culture consumed by Christ is ordered according to His Word. Chaos cannot stand against Christ. Tyranny preys upon disordered people, but well-ordered, free-spirited slaves of Christ cannot be bought or beaten.

"One desire has been the ruling passion of my life. One high motive has acted like a spur upon my mind and soul. and sooner than that I should seek escape from the sacred necessity that is laid upon me, let the breath of life fail me. It is this: That in spite of all worldly opposition, God's holy ordinances shall be established again in the home, in the school and in the State for the good of the people; to carve as it were into the conscience of the nation the ordinances of the Lord, to which Bible and Creation bear witness, until the nation pays homage again to God." — Abraham Kuyper

day no. 16,882: faith in doubt is the reigning orthodoxy

"There is a poisonous snake which seeks to enter the hearts of us all; it sucks the last drop of lifeblood from our veins.That monster has wrapped itself around our age and crept into its breast — addiction to doubt. I have seen its victims, have seen the enervated souls, the weak of heart who float along with the crowd, powerless to resist the tide, people who know only the momentary flush of excitement but are inwardly dying so that only a dissembling life can, for the moment, conceal their spiritual death... Modernism is a fata morgana in the Christian domain." — Abraham Kuyper, 1871

The modern mind takes pride in not knowing. So much so, it attempts to doubt everything other than itself. The only thing which can be known is what the knower wants to retain or finds useful at any particular moment. It takes advantage of what others continue to know while claiming the advantage of being free from their restraints. It claims intellectual superiority in the form of intellectual fluidity. It can know whatever it likes whenever it likes and not be constrained by what others continue to have to know. Modernism is a fairy castle erected by witchcraft. It is wish fulfillment incarnate. It is insidious and serpentine.

In short, faith in doubt is the reigning orthodoxy of the spirit of the age and its acolytes are legion.