The Providence Podcast: Let Earth Receive Her King

Wisdom for the New Year

Dov Cohen — Sun, 07 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Wisdom for the New Year

Series: Let Earth Receive Her King

Speaker: Dov Cohen

Date: 7th January 2024

Passage: Psalm 90:1-17

Unity in Diversity

Chris Oswald — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Unity in Diversity

Series: Let Earth Receive Her King

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 31st December 2023

Passage: Revelation 7:9-10

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Title: Unity in Diversity Text: Revelation 7:9-10

Introduction: It has been great fun to devote the sermons this Christmas season to Christ's work in history.

Tom Holland —

For a millennium and more, the civilization into which I had been born was Christendom. Assumptions that I had grown up with – about how a society should properly be organized, and the principles that it should uphold – were not bred of classical antiquity, still less of “human nature,” but very distinctively of the civilization’s Christian past. So profound has been the impact of Christianity on the development of Western civilization that it has come to be hidden from view. It is the incomplete revolutions which are remembered; the fate of those which triumph is to be taken for granted.

The ambition of Dominion is to trace the course of what one Christian, writing in the third century AD, termed “the flood-tide of Christ” (Acts of Thomas 31): how the belief that the Son of the one God of the Jews had been tortured to death on a cross came to be so enduringly and widely held that today most of us in the West are dulled to just how scandalous it originally was. This book explores what it was that made Christianity so subversive and disruptive; how completely it came to saturate the mindset of Latin Christendom; and why, in a West that is often doubtful of religion’s claims, so many of its instincts remain – for good and ill – thoroughly Christian.

Jesus has been at work. Holland never goes that far. He seems to be persuaded that the ideas themselves are the revolution. But we agree with Athanasius

Which lines up with what we are told in Ephesians 2:17

“And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.”

The idea is that He is reconciling the world to himself. That's the way Paul puts it in Colossians.

“For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” — Colossians 1:19-20

Or… we could say He is uniting all things. That’s the way Paul puts it in Ephesians.

…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. — Ephesians 1:9–10

I like the word unite. It brings to mind a very important concept — over which Christianity has a firm monopoly -- namely the idea of unity and diversity.

We have this idea in the trinity. Three persons one substance. We have the same notion on display in the Bible. 66 books // 40 authors. Written over 2000 years. Three languages. Three continents — one harmonious message.

Look at the cross-reference chart.

http://chrisharrison.net/projects/bibleviz/BibleVizArc7WiderOTNTsmall.png

That’s what Jesus is doing to the whole world. I think of this as his reharmonizing of the world.

The great genius Leibniz used the concept of “harmony” in a similar way. “Harmony, he writes, is when many [things] are restored to some kind of unity.”

Things which appear to us to be discordant are not actually ontologically discordant. They are simply instruments in an orchestra — originally designed to play together which are not tuned properly, not played properly, not conducted properly.

Take for instance the issue of ethnic diversity. Race or ethnicity is really an imperfect approximation of culture. Culture is the real question. But the big idea is that they don’t naturally harmonize. They are naturally discordant.

But take a look at this in the book of Revelation:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” — Revelation 7:9–10.

This is a fulfillment of many OT prophecies involving the Christianizing of people from many nations.

Malachi 1:11

For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.

Zechariah 2:11

11 And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people. And I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.

Isaiah 66:18

“For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory,

Habakkuk 2:14

“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.”

What is different in Revelation is that we see how the unity in diversity comes about. In all the OT passages, we have a general promise — but in Revelation 7 — we see that Christ is the power behind that promise.

Now, once again, this isn’t supposed to happen. We are so awash in Christian ideas that we assume multi-cultural unity is just a matter of deciding to do it. Not true. Distinct cultures are historically at odds with one another — most definitely not functioning in harmony.

That’s what I’ve been hoping to do with this series. Clear up any misconceptions about the origin of some of our culture’s deepest values.

I heard something written by George Orwell — from his experience in the Spanish Civil War.

Early in life I have noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper, but in Spain, for the first time, I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie. I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed. I saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards and traitors, and others who had never seen a shot fired hailed as heroes of imaginary victories; and I saw newspapers in London retailing these lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructures over events that never happened.

Secular Humanism was born on third base, thinking it hit a triple. It is Christianity that has made qualities like equality ubiquitous. And it is Christianity that makes any kind of unity within cultural diversity possible.

And in this Revelation text we are reminded that it is all of Christ.

Different Cultures Common King

Look at vs. 9

“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb”

Here we see different cultures with a common king. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb.

And what kind of king? A dying king. A sacrificial king. A king who leads out of love.

Different Cultures Common Covering

Looking back at vs. 9 we see, “…After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes…”

In the Scriptures, the history of clothing is obviously quite interesting. We go in the beginning of the Bible to naked and unashamed, to naked and ashamed (gluing on fig leaves), and we could keep going all the way to Christ being stripped before his crucifixion and dying in a very shameful way.

By the time we get to Revelation, we understand that white robes are a picture of justification. Of forgiveness. Of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness.

It is white because we’re forgiven and made righteous in Christ. It is a robe, because that’s what priests wear. And we are told in Revelation 5:9-10 we have,

“And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

Different Cultures Common Celebration

Continuing in our text, we see:

“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Jesus is their king, he is their covering, and he is the cause of their celebration.

Jesus Christ is such a weighty substantial powerful individual — he is like the sun in our solar system. His substance brings unity of orbit to the diversity of planets.

And he teaches the nations.

Every culture has a distinct view of leadership. Jesus provides the right one. The sovereign savior.

Every culture has a way of handling shame and a way of projecting status. Jesus provides white robes of meritless justification.

Every culture has some vision of triumph. Some kind of common celebration. Jesus shows us that the triumph of humanity is merely to be forgiven and to be his.

Conclusion So Far:

So that’s a little bit about Christian Unity in Diversity. Now I want to take a moment to apply this in a distinctly New Years Eve kind of way.

You are a diversity of things.

You have a diversity of roles. You have a diversity of ways of viewing the world. Thoughts and feelings.

You can think of yourself as a kind of solar system. You have all these different planets floating inside of you. And it is pretty common for a Christian to lack internal unity. To have some parts of him/her in conformity to Christ. And other parts not so much.

For some people it is days — I’m orbiting around Jesus on Sunday — but by Thursday, not so much.

For some people it is certain areas of their life — Christ is the center of much of their life — but when it comes to their finances, their fantasies, etc…

Now you see a group of nations gathered in unity and see the beauty in that. Well, I want to suggest that a man or a woman who, through the grace of Christ, gathers all of himself or herself to the service of the Lord is a pretty beautiful sight.

I think that’s what Ireneaus was getting at with his statement, “the glory of God is fully alive.”

Now some might say, “I don’t know Chris, this seems like a bit of a stretch. Revelation is talking about unity of nations before the throne — now you’re talking about the unity of a person’s life unto Christ.”

Its like well, how do you suppose the nations thing happens?

Look back at the text one more time:

“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number…”

Well, I can think of one person who can number it, has numbered it, knows the number of hairs on the heads of each person there…”

From every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

What’s the salvation they are celebrating? National salvations? No. Maybe God has saved various nations. Wouldn’t surprise me at all.

But that’s not what they’re celebrating. Their celebrating individual conversions. Individual justifications, individual sanctifications.

And this in turn does something to the character of a nation — and indeed of the whole world.

But if we want harmony in the world — conformity to Christ in the world — we ought to start with ourselves — bringing unity to the diversity of our many motives and members.

And this… and only this… will have a broader cultural affect…

Theologian James B Jordan wrote an article called The Dominion Trap

Christian activist literature too often reduces or even perverts Christianity into an ideology, a set of ideas. Christianity is not, however, an ideology to be implemented through crusading activism. Rather, Christianity is a new creation. It grows holistically and organically out of the life of faith and prayer. It is as men draw near to God and acquire wisdom and maturity from the Scriptures that they are built up and prepared for dominical responsibilities, and God will confer these upon His people in due time.

The point is simply this. Every Christian who wants to see Christ’s kingdom advance in the world must take great care to see it advance in his own life.

So this year, join me in gathering all of yourself. All of your feelings, thoughts, dreams, ambitions, your work life, your relationships, your intellectual curiosities, your physical appetites gather all of you before the throne of Christ.

And see that all of you worships Christ in unity.

Every part of you has the same king. Every part of you has the same covering. Every part of you celebrates the same thing.

Be like Patrick of Ireland

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.

This is the kind of thing you need to do from time to time. Get all of your internal sled dogs pulling in the same direction. Today is a good day to do that.

We have records throughout church history of many people renewing themselves before the Lord many times throughout their lives.

Here’s an account Jonathan Edwards records that sums it up well…

I have, this day, solemnly renewed my baptismal covenant and self-dedication, which I renewed when I was taken into the communion of the church. I have been before God, and have given myself, all that I am and have, to God; so that I am not, in any respect, my own. I can challenge no right in this understanding, this will, these affections, which are in me. Neither have I any right to this body, or any of its members—no right to this tongue, these hands, these feet; no right to these senses, these eyes, these ears, this smell, or this taste. I have given myself clear away, and have not retained any thing as my own.

Wouldn’t it be fitting and proper and good for both you, your relationships, and the world at large if you joined with Jonathan Edwards today and said — “Today… I have renewed my whole self to the Lord. Today… I have given myself clear away.”

How Jesus is Establishing His Kingdom

Chris Oswald — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

How Jesus is Establishing His Kingdom

Series: Let Earth Receive Her King

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 24th December 2023

Passage: Isaiah 9:6-7

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Call to Worship:

Zephaniah 3:17-20

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival, so that you will no longer suffer reproach. Behold, at that time I will deal with all your oppressors. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. At that time I will bring you in, at the time when I gather you together; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes,” says the Lord.

Introduction: Chess nuts roasting on an open fire.

Today we’re going to continue the conversation began last week about the world under the sovereign reign of Jesus Christ.

We looked at Isaiah 9:6-7.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

And we asked — what evidence is there that these promises are coming to pass?

And we saw evidence of virtues/values/morals developing since the coming of Christ that did not exist prior to his incarnation, life, death, resurrection, ascension, reign…

Now we’re not arguing for any kind of utopianism. Merely we would apply what the old Saint John Newton said of himself…

“I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, but still I am not what I once used to be…”

That is how I would describe the world today as a result of Christ’s coming.

It is not what it ought to be. It is not what we want it to be. But still it is not what it used to be.

Today we want to ask “how.”

Look with me at vs. 7

Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

We can all coexist with different understandings of “when.” But we cannot do mission together unless we understand “how.”

How is Jesus bringing his kingdom to pass?

Rejecting Elitists

We need to remember that the gospel has a hard edge to it. And even with Christmas and the incarnation, though we have many warm and fuzzies — we don’t want to forget about the hard edge. Remember what Simeon told Mary and Joseph. This child is appointed for the downfall and rise of many. (Luke 2:34). We tend to focus on who Christmas is for and forget to ever talk about who it is against.

But the gospel is against, at least one specific type of person — the elitist.

Elitism = self-appointed, self-perpetuating superiority…

A. Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55)

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

B. Jesus’ worship of the Father in Matthew 11:25-26

At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

C. Paul’s explanation in 1 Corinthians 1:27-29

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

Now what I want to make sure you see is God’s direct opposition of the proud. He isn’t actively saving the humble and passively letting the prideful go their own way. No, he is actively saving the humble and actively opposing the proud.

In Mary’s song — he is scattering the proud, bringing down the mighty, sending the rich away empty.

In Jesus’ praise — God is actively hiding his gospel from the so-called wise and understanding.

In 1 Corinthians 1:27-29 — he is shaming the wise and the strong.

II. Reigning in Hearts

Once again, we are asking how Jesus fulfilling the promises in our text.

And we’re asking how?

Well throughout the Old Testament, God often tipped his hand, saying that the final act, which would bring his kingdom to pass, was the conversion of individual souls.

But we can go back thousands of years and see that God has always been planning it…

Deuteronomy 30:6 — “And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.”

Jeremiah 31:33 — “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

Ezekiel 36:26-27 — “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

Now all of these texts are placed within the context of national promises, national outcomes, etc… The key to God’s national blessings is individual conversion — Christ governing the heart of each believer.

Now look with me at Galatians 5:19-24

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Tell me what happens when a considerable number of people move from the activities in the first list into the activities of the second list?

We are asking how Jesus is establishing his kingdoms. All other kingdoms have been established by coercion. Christ’s kingdom is established by conversion.

As we read last week from Richard Halverson…

“The fact is, the birth, crucifixion, and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ are celebrated worldwide by folk of every race, language, and color, every year. And believing in Jesus, they have been delivered from the most evil, disastrous, frustrating, debilitating habits and life forms possible.

I was reading Athanasius this week. A very early church father (died in 370s) who at times, seemed to stand entirely alone in defending the biblical doctrine of the deity of Christ. His stubbornness spurred a somewhat epic statement: Athanasius contra mundum (Athanasius against the world).

His most important work is simply titled: On the Incarnation. He offers many defenses of the physical reality of Christ’s life, death, resurrection and reign.

Eventually he argues — obviously Jesus has come! Look at the difference he is making!

“For now that the Saviour works so great things among men, and day by day is invisibly persuading so great a multitude from every side, both from them that dwell in Greece and in foreign lands, to come over to His faith, and all to obey His teaching, will any one still hold his mind in doubt whether a Resurrection has been accomplished by the Saviour, and whether Christ is alive, or rather is Himself the Life?”

“Or is it like a dead man to be pricking the consciences of men, so that they deny their hereditary laws and bow before the teaching of Christ? …the adulterer no longer commits adultery, and the murderer murders no more, nor is the inflicter of wrong any longer grasping, and the profane is henceforth religious? Or how, if He be not risen but is dead, does He drive away, and pursue, and cast down those false gods said by the unbelievers to be alive, and the demons they worship? For where Christ is named, and His faith, there all idolatry is deposed and all imposture of evil spirits is exposed, and any spirit is unable to endure even the name, nay even on barely hearing it flies and disappears. But this work is not that of one dead, but of one that lives — and especially of God.”

Which brings us all back to the quote we started with. Old John Newton… “I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, but still I am not what I once used to be…”

I wonder how much you know about John Newton? Maybe you know that he wrote the hymn Amazing Grace?

Here is his tombstone

"John Newton, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy!”

Newton was the captain of several slave ships. He was an active part of the slave trade. And in time, the grace of God transformed his heart. The Lord killed his inner elitist. The Lord reigned over John Newton’s heart. So much so that he became instrumental in the outlawing of the slave trade in England.

Is the world what it ought to be? No. But it is not what it used to be.

And this is because Jesus Christ has come — seeking and saving the lost — converting them — transforming them — and establishing his kingdom through them.

That’s at least a partial explanation of “how” Jesus is —

The Government on His Shoulder?

Chris Oswald — Sun, 17 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

The Government on His Shoulder?

Series: Let Earth Receive Her King

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 17th December 2023

Passage: Isaiah 9:6-7

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Quotes:

The Book That Made Your World — How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization

“The Bible created the modern world of science and learning because it gave us the Creator’s vision of what reality is all about. That is what made the modern West a reading and thinking civilization. Postmodern people see little point in reading books that do not contribute directly to their career or pleasure. This is a logical outcome of atheism, which has now realized that the human mind cannot possibly know what is true and right.” — Vishal Mangalwadi

Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“In fact, all known societies above the very primitive level have been slave societies—even many of the Northwest American Indian tribes had slaves long before Columbus’s voyage.46 Amid this universal slavery, only one civilization ever rejected human bondage: Christendom. And it did it twice!”

The WEIRDEST People in the World, Joseph Henrich

In 19th-century Switzerland, other aftershocks of the Reformation have been detected in a battery of cognitive tests given to Swiss army recruits. Young men from all-Protestant districts were not only 11 percentile points more likely to be “high performers” on reading tests compared to those from all-Catholic districts, but this advantage bled over into their scores in math, history, and writing.

Tom Holland, Dominion

Repeatedly, whether crashing through the canals of Tenochtitlan, or settling the estuaries of Massachusetts, or trekking deep into the Transvaal, the confidence that had enabled Europeans to believe themselves superior to those they were displacing was derived from Christianity. Repeatedly, though…it was Christianity that…provided the colonized and the enslaved with the surest voice. The paradox was profound. No other conquerors, carving out empires for themselves, had done so as the servants of a man tortured to death on the orders of a colonial official. No other conquerors…had installed…an emblem of power so deeply ambivalent as to render problematic the very notion of power.

George Sciallabba

Perseverance in virtue will sometimes require self-sacrifice. And self-sacrifice seems to require some transcendental justification or motivation, of which the most common, and perhaps the most logical, is belief in the existence of God.

And there is the quick of my discomfort: the suspicion, powerfully and plausibly albeit tactfully and tentatively expressed, that the ideals I most prize are at bottom inadequate. I confess I see no alternative to living with this suspicion, perhaps permanently.

Yuval Noah Harari, Author of Sapiens

“Most legal systems in the world today are based on a belief in human rights. But what are human rights? Human rights…like God and heaven, are just a story we’ve invented. They’re not objective reality. They’re not a biological fact about Homo sapiens. Take a human being, cut him open, look inside, you will find the heart, the kidneys, neurons, hormones, DNA. But you won’t find any rights. The only place you find rights is in the stories that we have invented and spread…they may be very positive stories, very good stories. But they are still just fictional stories that we have invented.”

“Human rights are as fictional as the God who underwrites them.”

Glen Scrivener, The Air We Breathe

Imagine there’s another guest on the TV show. Plato is brought in, blinking at the studio lights and baffled by the technology. He’s asked whether he agrees with the claim: “Some lives are worth more than others”. The ancient thinker frowns: what is the debate exactly? It is trivially obvious to the father of Western philosophy that lives are of unequal value. Some are men, and some are women; some are Greeks, and some are barbarians; some are free, and some are slaves. There are rich and poor, wise and foolish, strong and weak. All that we see in nature is difference. Compare any two people concerning any one attribute and what will you conclude? This one has more than that one. This, of course, is the definition of unequal. To insist that two people are equal really, when every human trait betrays inequality, raises the question: Equal how? Where is this magical realm where their “equality” exists? Can you show it to me? If Plato was being polite, he might say, “Your faith in ‘equality’ fascinates me, and I’d like to be able to see what you see. Clearly ‘equality’ is very important to you. You live your life in the light of this belief, and I can respect that. But to me it looks as if you’ve just decided to believe in something with no reason or evidence. I’m afraid I’m not convinced.”

The Flight From Humanity, Rushdoony

"The gospel of Sir Thomas More was his Utopia, wherein man's mind imposed its idea on all of the world of matter. For More, wives were to be selected after being inspected naked; their minds were not important enough to count, So unimportant was matter or particularity, so little was it the world of spirit, that wives were to be chosen without regard to the unity of mind and matter, naked on inspection like cattle. For Aristotle, women were misbegotten males, an inferior form of humanity (more material), and Plato wondered as to whether women could be called reasonable creatures. Aristotle held that men, slaves, women, and children all have souls. However, "although the parts of the soul are present in all of them, they are present in different degrees. Women thus have less soul than men and are thus more material. As a result, the neoplatonist tradition has tended strongly toward a hostility to women as the principle of sensuality and materialism. The implicaton of More's principle, which he applied to his daughter, was that women are at best essentially flesh rather than spirit, and hence, like cattle, to be inspected physically before marriage.

The feminist movement, despite its serious errors, has some justification, in that the neoplatonist movement has consistently treated women with contempt. In the Bible, women are presented as no less intelligent than men, nor any the less capable of redemption; the question is one of authority, not of humanity or dignity, whereas in the neoplatonist tradition women are seen at times almost as a different species or at best a very inferior form of man.

The influence of Hellenic thought on Islam is a marked one, and women are the victims of it. Islam is a good example of men setting up a sexual order for their gratification, all the while insisting that men are rational and spiritual, and that women are coarse, materialistic, and sensual in nature. They are also supposedly inferior to men. The Bible teaches, not the inferiority of women, but their subordination, a very different thing."

Richard Halverson

Christ in Isaiah

Dr. James White — Sun, 10 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Christ in Isaiah

Series: Let Earth Receive Her King

Speaker: Dr. James White

Sunday Morning

Date: 10th December 2023

Passage: Isaiah 9:6-7