In earlier blog postings I have introduced what I believe to be the definitive book on the biblical basis for our U.S. Constitution—The Roots of the American Republic, by Rev. E.C. Wines, written in the mid-nineteenth century and republished in 1997 by the Plymouth Rock Foundation. Following is a brief summary of the first four of 17 characteristics of a biblical civil government Wines mined from the Bible. Following that is a mention of some of the remaining 13 biblical characteristics he sees in…

Last week I intended to include this information in that posting, but I expanded the introductory remarks to such a degree that I decided to take a deep breath and finish the idea this week. This is that posting. The first purpose for having Civil Government is to keep God’s fallen children from killing themselves until they repent, return to their Abba Father, and begin to walk by faith. God Himself ordained the institution of Civil Government, including the power to take human life…

In this posting, we will complete our survey of the three, essential weapons God has given us to use to fulfill our creation mandate to rule over the earth (Genesis 1:26-28).  These weapons are, first,  the Family, which SUPPLIES fresh, young, “rulers-in-training” every generation. Then there is the Church, which EQUIPS these families with the vision of both the Gospel and the Kingdom of God they will be extending, plus the skill to make that vision reality. Finally, there is the Civil Government, which…

A regular reader of this Two Edges of the Sword blog sent me an enthusiastic note of approval after reading a recent posting. However, she concluded her note with this question: “But where is the Holy Spirit in all this?” I dropped a note back to her, reminding her that the Sword of the Word of God always has two edges. There is the first edge, the Law edge, that tells us what we must do to please God. The second edge is the…

God has given us (fallen mankind) three institutions as essential weapons for us to use as we fulfill our original, pre-Fall mission of ruling over the earth (Genesis 1:26-28)—the family, the church and the civil government  As we have seen, the diagram of the Ship of the Kingdom, pictured below, shows us how God is, post-cross,  re-establishing His  original Eternal Purpose of delegating dominion over the earth to mankind. The initial delegation by God of His kingdom was to the Perfect Man, Jesus Christ. …

In our task of ruling over the earth, God has given us three main weapons to accomplish that task—the family, the church and the civil government. We discussed last week that John Calvin and Abraham Kuyper proposed the concept of sphere sovereignty to explain how these three weapons function together as God’s original ruling purpose for man is fulfilled. Today I’m posting the “Ship of the Kingdom” diagram that I have shared several times, as it is a summary of their ideas. I present…

Solid, biblical churches today, in one way or another, teach or mention the first three of our four  pillars in our “Theology for Dummies” course of study—1.) “God is absolutely sovereign,” 2.) “Man is absolutely sinful,” and 3.) “God relates to man absolutely by grace alone.” However, today’s churches are generally silent about the fourth—4.) ”Now what do I do?” This seems strange, since the Bible’s very first mention of man at all (Genesis 1:26-28) was at his creation when God declared WHY HE…

For the past few weeks, we have established God’s absolutes—His sovereignty, our sinfulness, and His forgiveness. We struggle with each of these absolutes, because since the Fall, we are all PERFORMANCE ADDICTS. We have an unconscious, universal  addiction to desperately wanting to be like God ourselves. We all want to be our own decider, as we each strive to obey God’s Law, and we fight to preserve our own free-will at all costs!. This means that we each think we are the ultimate determiners…

We have now navigated through three of the four topics that constitute our “Theology for Dummies” seminary course in some detail (not too much because we are, after all, “Dummies!”). What common idea has run through each topic so far? Here is a brief review: 1.) God is absolutely sovereign; 2.) Man is absolutely sinful, 3.) God relates to man absolutely by Grace alone.  Even we, who must qualify as theological dummies to get credit for this course, can see that the common thread…

I concluded last week’s posting about the utter, absolute wickedness of man with the following statement: ”One would think a clear and expanding divine revelation of such personal wickedness, as defined by God Himself, would be very discouraging, if not devastating, to me, particularly after a full life-time of ‘pursuing God. and His work.’ But, strangely enough, I am finding myself REJOICING, and literally bursting with what I am learning! Next week I’ll tell you specifically WHY I feel that way.” So, now it’s…