If the author (John
Darby — Early Dispensationalist Leader) would write in plain
English his readers would probably discover that there is nothing very valuable
in his remarks.
— Charles
Spurgeon, Commenting and Commentaries,
84
Thankfully,
at least according to the Mayan Calendar, this will all be over by December 21,
2012. The end of the world, or the end of the world as we know and have known
it? There could be a big difference.
The
end of the world as we have known it, really just takes both European leaders
and Washington Federal politicians to continue kicking the financial debt can
down the road. The major problem, as we continue to point out, is that the
twenty-first century solutions to globalismÕs reliance on itsy-bitsy no risk pieces
of the action, on all the worldÕs financial transactions, has failed to sustain
anything but more debt.
Today
we will look at what we have defined as the Profane Covenant as the reason
behind this failure. We would like to say that a few twists and turns and a few
corrageous acts by political or financial leadership and the debt Titanic will
miss the end of the world iceberg, but that just kicks the can back to the
Mayan prophesy.
I
donÕt think I have ever quoted Pat Buchanan in all my years of doing these
writings, but this week his pusillanimous
comments about American Christians pretty much illustrates the timidity
that is behind the current dominance of the Profane Covenant in not only this
country, but also the whole of western culture.
The
Bible describes three covenants; the oldest being the Profane, even though you
probably have never heard it described in that way. The other two are the
Abrahamic Covenant, also known as the Covenant of Grace and the Mosaic Covenant
or the Covenant of GodÕs Law.
One
way to describe the Profane Covenant, for it traces its roots back to the
Garden of Eden, is the devil made me do it. All of historic orthodox
Christianity, especially Protestant Christianity, traces our profane source
back to St. Augustine and total depravity, which literally we perform quite
well all by ourselves.
The
Abrahamic Covenant, is first mentioned in the context of GodÕs grace in that
Eden scene also, but becomes codified later in Genesis 12. Since we are
currently seeking a Republican candidate for president, the Latter Day Saints
interpretation, of this totally God centered act, is man centered and the
responsibility of faith dwells totally within AbrahamÕs personality.
So
while we are at it, in context similar to BuchananÕs article, much of American
evangelicalism, while not outwardly adopting Mormon views, are in their lack of
any systematic theology, in reality Antinomian Mormons.
Perhaps
the best direct Biblical example of the Abrahamic-Grace Covenant comes from the
author of Hebrews 1:1-4:
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to
our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his
Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the
world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his
nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making
purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more
excellent than theirs. (ESV)
To fit their theology, Mormons would modify the
interpretation of this reading also.
This brings us to the actual law given to Moses by God on
Mount Sinai (Exodus 19-24). As we pointed out last week, the Mosaic Covenant is
just the codified written common grace law of conscience, written on the hearts
of all mankind as morals.
When God selected the nation of Israel to be the chosen
people to bring about the natural environment for the coming messiah, God gave
Moses these written laws, so that the people would be without excuse, when, not
if, they decided to adopt their own profane religion. That took less than forty
days for the first failure, as a golden
calf of the Egyptian religion, just appeared out of the fire while Moses
brother Aaron was overseeing the desert revival.
The Profane Covenant is really all about man and either has
nothing to do with God or more precisely is anti-God. The devil may have been
the ultimate source for human total depravity, but, just as that garden serpent
said, we like to know the difference between good and evil, so that we can
choose the evil.
Skipping forward several thousand years, we can see through
the rise of western civilization, a general but slow enlightenment of human
potential out of the mysticism and myths of all Godly religions. We emerged from
the Dark Ages with the Renaissance, which was followed by the Reformation. Then
slowly out of the Protestant Reformation we saw this gradual change become somewhat
codified into a formal Enlightenment. Where we are at the present, is that
Enlightenment formality has reached the zenith of its understanding of
complexity.
The essence of the Profane Covenant is that if we dumb
everything down to a common denominator, which we humans can then understand,
reality will be miraculously transformed into that likeness.
LetÕs choose just ten items out of this profane universe in
no particular order: evolution, the Euro, tax cuts are cause and effect for
economic growth, tax hikes are cause and effect of economic growth, human
actions will counter climate change, the elites should manage the proletariat,
there are no limits to (economic) growth, money is our god, religion is just a
primitive myth, mankind can create heaven on earth.
When you truly get serious, there is just one profane variation
of a theme from no matter where you come at the solutions to the current
problems. That answer is: We need to do more!
Barack Obama says we need to do more of his agenda to again
bring about prosperity.
The field of Republican presidential candidates say, we need
to do more of my agenda to make this country great again.
Financial elites say we need to adopt austerity measures so
that we can eventually borrow more money to by things.
The TEA Party says we are taxed enough already.
The Occupy Protestors say the one percent have it all, take
from them and give me mine.
What is missing from all of this list and the hundred of
similar causes and desires is the reality that this is a limited world and we
have created a closed zero some game to manage it. One-way to describe this is:
Profane human enlightenment, another is stupidity, another is just designed
random noise.
Noise is really a definition of entropy. We have noise
everywhere, all of the time. The noise wants our money and us, yet they really
donÕt care that much about us. The noise wants to give us money, if we will pay
it back with interest. The noise wants us to buy stuff we cannot afford, so
that this bankrupt model will continue to function. The noise truly doesnÕt
want us to look at the mess the Profane Covenant has created, because if we
drop out we will have to look at the reality of God as God.
Ultimately the Profane Covenant fails because all it can
offer real people is the wonderful opportunity to be both the producing and
consumptive engines of a totally material world. The problem with the Euro is
the Greeks never bought into that worldview. The same can be said for the
Spanish, the Portuguese, the Irish and the Italians; the Americans out beyond
Washington DC and Wall Street; and weÕre also not too sure about the French,
and the Brits outside the City of London.
The Profane Covenant however does offer some the possibility
to become a god in their own eyes, determining right and wrong for yourself. If
you are capable and simplistic enough you can also become a mini-god elitist
leader of others.
The Abrahamic and the Mosaic Covenants however offer
problems with that — I can become (a-the) god worldview. They both hold, in their biblical form,
there is an Almighty, Complex and Timeless Personality and you are just a
created being. Furthermore this God thing doesnÕt work out too well within a
totally evolving materialistic worldview.
I read a headline just before Christmas that many of the Ivy
league graduates are now opting not to go to Wall Street to seek their fortunes
but to become teachers. If that is not a picture of the demise of the Profane
Covenant, I donÕt know what is?
So we were traveling along the historic Enlightenment road
and jumped directly to the profane materialism of today. What has happened
along this time trail to the Abrahamic and the Mosaic Covenants?
The Spurgeon quote from the beginning of the article refers
to John Darby, one of the founding leaders of Dispensational Premillennialism.
When you put Christianity and Judaism in context with the Profane Covent you
see with the ascension of the Profane, not so much the demise of Godliness but
the varied accommodations with this new religion.
In the United States from the early nineteenth century we
had the Second Great Awakening. This began in New England, the colonial home of
pietistic nonconformist Calvinists and Unitarians. From this sterile religious
ground and during a short period of time we see the birth and growth of the
Latter Day Saints, Christian Science, Transcendentalism, the Millerites that
became the Adventist movement, and Charles FinneyÕs (Presbyterian?) methods
revivalism.
These led to accommodations with evolution, for in order to
become or stay relevant, Christianity had to evolve with the times and the
profane science. It wasnÕt too long within revivalism the best way to get
converts was appeal to the soon coming Dispensational Rapture so that you would
not be left behind. This forged a revivalist union between Baptists and
Methodists, which sort of just evolved into the
pentecostal-charismatic-evangelical forms we see in most of American
Christianity today.
Left behind were the more mainline denominations that
evolved more liberally, not in the classic liberal political sense, but in the
current progressive social justice political model. This meant that the messiah
of the world had to evolve from the savior of mankind, into a gospel of good
works as a means to heaven. This is not all that different from what the Roman
Catholics proclaimed at the Council of Trent (1543-1563) after the Reformation;
but they reached that consensus by design not through evolution, that would
come later.
So what does this mean for our future in the still early
stages of the twenty-first century?
Nothing works all that well. In the United States we lead
the world by a wide margin in consumerism, some 70 plus percent of our GDP, yet
most people no longer make enough money to follow that model to the extreme
required to produce the well paying jobs to make the system work.
Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have even thought
that deeply about our broken system. For them it is either reduce taxes or
raise taxes and spend government money, when in reality it is the profane
consumer debt driven worldview that is broken and government is neither the
enemy nor the savior. Government is supposedly the mechanism by which cultural
political consensus is forged, thereby creating common human civilization.
There is a God and we are not gods, we are humanÕs created
in the image of God. That creation is too interrelated and complex for our
currently profane simplistic minds to comprehend, therefore we need to observe
that reality and live within creationÕs intricate precepts and not try to
manage something beyond our abilities.
That will mean some profound changes that will occur as we
approach the Mayan end of the world and move beyond. Christianity will again
become about the gospelÕs saving work of Jesus Christ and the pusillanimous
church will disappear.
With that transcendent reality will develop an economic
system based upon natural markets, sound money, individual worth and
responsibility, as well has a broader sense of community.
That does not mean that the Profane Covenant will just be
raptured out of existence, it will in short order just become irrelevant, much
like the demise of the former Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, or soon will happen in
Iraq.
Along that line, less we forget, is the future of the
Eurozone and the Euro, which is an attempt to merge sovereign nations, all
hundreds, if not a thousand years in existence, into the grand Babylonian
collective model.
All these institutions deny or denied unique human diversity
as the foundational universal paradigm, which ultimately will not serve the
elite, but in reality sanctifies the individual and gives meaning to our lives.
In early 2013 a new president will take office in the United
States, one way or the other he will have to begin to embrace these coming
changes. As of this writing, I personally donÕt think any of those who are
seeking this office, comprehend the true reality they think they can manage,
because the God of both the biblical Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenants will not be
hampered to do his will by the shallow precepts of our political systems.
As best as we can foretell, we are not faced with the true
end of the world, for that rests totally within the scope of the Almighty, but
rather we will be forced to cope with changes well beyond what we have become
accustomed to want to believe. Sadly those changes are going to become more
stupendous before we reach a more level stasis of normality.
©
2011: All rights reserved.
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