The Revolutionary Ideology
November/December 2011
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The Biblical premises are all hostile to the revolutionary ideology, because Christianity affirms God as the Creator and Redeemer, not chaos and revolution. Power is sought from above, not from below. In fact, for Christianity, power from below is ultimately demonic.
War between Christ and Caesar, the Christians and Rome, was thus inevitable. The state and its emperors claimed to offer salvation. The church declared only Christ does.
There are many once great cities that now lie in ruins, some of their histories completely lost to us, their armies, influence, and wealth now immaterial. Man proposes and God disposes. Not even the states of Israel and Judah were so important to God's purpose that He couldn't dissolve them and still accomplish His promised salvation.
This series looks to God's Word for His prescription on what we can do to stop living like non-Christians, and to begin living like Christians.
In Part One I wrote about a workshop with church elders that highlighted the lack of planning. Part 2 is about implementation, but the implementation story is from another workshop I conducted with even better results.
Why do modern parents tolerate the tantrums, rudeness, defiance, and rebellion of their children? Why do they pursue a policy of appeasement, often handling a defiant outburst with a piece of candy or a new toy? Blame can be laid at the doorstep of the anti-spanking experts who have polluted the culture by making corporal punishment synonymous with child abuse, thereby creating justifiable fear in parents that public disciplining may get them in trouble with the law or Child Protective Services. While there are a number of societal causes that contribute to the status quo, much needs to be laid at the doorsteps of the church that fails to teach God's law-word in its fullest application.
The Second Mayflower—first published in 1994, and twice updated since—is Swanson’s metaphor for the future. As the Pilgrims set sail on the first Mayflower to found a Christian civilization in a New World, Swanson writes, so must Americans today embark on a “second Mayflower” to re-found a Christian polity—either here in America, or somewhere else: “Either change this place, or go somewhere else where it can be done”