day no. 16,813: current events are conceived by origin stories and eschatologies

"We deny that there can be any true Christian impact on culture if there is not absolute faith in what God teaches in His Word about human origins. This is because the progress for which we labor is a species of sanctification, not a form of evolution." — New Saints Andrews College, Thirty Theses on Culture Building

Current events are shaped by competing origin stories and eschatologies. They are conceived by what is believed about where we came from and where we should be going.

Sanctification presupposes both the Edenic perfection and the Fall into sin as well as justification and ultimate glorification of those in Christ. Where you think we came from and where you think we should go will determine what you try to promote and what you seek to penalize.

If you imagine we are the product of millions of years of chance happening and headed toward a future utopia built by human merit, it will come out your fingertips here and now. It will season the words that cross your lips and color the cares that cross your mind.

"We affirm that genuine cultural engagement is a long term inter-generational endeavor, and requires those who participate in it to do it with an intelligent grasp of eschatology. Cultural endeavors that are not supported by an eschatological vision either will be drudgery, trying to eke out a living, or will be characterized by an attempt to get excitement from somewhere, which will usually be the kind of excitement that comes from the latest and hot new thing." — New Saints Andrews College, Thirty Theses on Culture Building

If you are not anchored in an ultimate telos, you will be subject to the whims of contemporary froth and bubble. Eschatology keeps a man from fads and keeps his head down in his labors with a legacy to fuel him rather than the fanfare of his contemporaries.

"We deny that an optimistic eschatological expectation requires us to adopt false optimism of the kind promulgated by the left wing of postmillennialism, whether of the social gospel sort of a century ago or the social justice nostrums that are being peddled now. Neither should we fall into the trap of an over-realized eschatology. We believe that our labors in the Lord are not in vain (1 Cor. 15:58), but at the same time we understand ourselves to be playing the long game. It may well be that future generations will consider us to have been part of the early church. The yeast expands slowly. The mustard seed grows into a plant slowly." — New Saints Andrews College, Thirty Theses on Culture Building

We don't work hard because failure is impossible, but because good work is hard. We labor with the promises of the Lord in our hearts and the perseverance of His saints as our example. We endure difficulty for the sake of the joy set before us. That joy is guaranteed. The path there is sometimes a steep ascent and other times a dramatic plunge, but it always advances up that mountain of God.

"We seek to educate future cultural leaders, which means we are equipping them for that role, which is not the same thing as determining the will of God for their lives. If an individual graduate is led by the Spirit of God to labor in an obscure corner, the last day will reveal the cups of cold water that he gave to others in the name of Christ, and we do not in any way consider that a failure of our mission. It is, rather, a striking success. At the same time, if after graduating scores of cultural leaders, no culture actually gets led or shaped in biblical directions, we might want to consider changing our mission statement." — New Saints Andrews College, Thirty Theses on Culture Building

Christendom comes through homes where men and women married in the Lord raise their children in the Lord. That home will be productive and will export its goods to the its neighborhoods, cities, etc... Culture will be shaped and nations will be taught the commands of Christ. If Christ is Lord between your ears, that will come out your mouth and through your fingertips. If Christ is Lord of your home, it will exit your doors and pour out your windows. Where Christ is Lord, He is Lord of all and anywhere He is held in high esteem, He goes with those, wherever they may go.

Matthew 28:18-20

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

We do not merely go, we therefore go. We go because all authority in heaven and earth belong to Christ. He is our God and we are His people. We go knowing His kingdom will come and His will will be done. We go knowing He goes with us. We go knowing He is where we are going. We go because He sent us. The beginning and the end is always Jesus. World without end. Amen.