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The following extended Essay includes these topics: The Antithesis, Total Depravity, Antithesis and the Word of God, Antithesis and the Law of God, Theonomy, Antithesis and Culture, Doctrine of Seoaration, Antithesis and Evangelism
Introduction: Rev 12:1-17
12 A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth. 3 Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4 His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman [Israel] who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. 5 And she gave birth to a son, a male child, [Jesus] who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne [the Ascension]; 6 and the woman fled into the wilderness .... 7 And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, 8 but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 9 The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
12 Rejoice then, you heavens and those who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you with great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” 17 Then the dragon was angry ... and went off to make war on ... those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus. [chapter 13 introduces Satan's agents in this war: The Totalitarian State, False Religion and Immoral, Materialistic Culture]
I do not have a very sanguine (rosy, optimistic) view of life or the world. I see it primarily in terms of a War, Conflict and Struggle between Good and Evil, Light and Darkness, between the Dragon and the Baby, Satan and Christ. The above passage conveys this scenario. It is very Biblical.
I am not pessimistic or fatalistic. Christ is greater than Satan. In the end, "St George" will slay the Dragon. The Kingdom of Light shall prevail over the Kingdom of Darkness.
This paper explores some of what is transpiring in the meanwhile, as part of the Cosmic War. It outlines what we Christians are up against and what we must do about it. Like the war in Afghanistan and most Americans, American Christians as a group do not seem to be truly alarmed about the spiritual war, let alone on alert and battle ready, for the conflict I write about. But write about it I must and I hope someone reading this paper will understand what we must all do and what I am trying to do.
The Antithesis
Isaiah 55:7 let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; …8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
1 Corinthians 1:19 …it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
These passages are describing Antithesis. “Antithesis” (like “Trinity”) is a word not found in the Bible, but the concept is. It means “opposite” (as in “opponent“) or contrary. In the history of ideas, it refers to a theory about the way ideas or concepts develop and change over time. Someone presents a “thesis“. Someone may have an opposite or different “thesis“. This would be the “antithesis“. Often the debaters will compromise or combine their ideas and come up with a new one called a “synthesis“. Someone will come along with another “thesis” opposite to the new “synthesis” and the process goes on and on. In Theology, antithesis is used to label and describe certain categories of ideas or thoughts of Man as being, not simply different but opposite or contrary or inimical (hostile or adverse) to the ideas or thoughts of God on the same subjects, e.g.- the thesis that Marriage can be homosexual is opposite or contrary to God’s thesis that Marriage is heterosexual.
Note the animus here. The opposition of Man’s thinking to God’s thinking reveals the darkest truth about the heart and nature of Man*- he hates his Maker. It is commonly said (or felt) that God is good and loves us. Well, He does, but Man opposes God’s thoughts because, deep down, even unconsciously, he sees God as his Enemy. Satan’s scheme in the Garden was to persuade Eve of exactly that. He convinced her that God is mean. “God is against you and wants to deprive you of all that is good.” (Gen 3:1-7) This is the great Deception. By buying this satanic Lie, Man became hostile toward God. It does not take much trouble or pain to bring this deep animus to the surface of most people’s emotions and words. This hostility or enmity in the human heart is what the antithesis is really about. It is evident throughout the world. Today’s Evangelicals seem to either not know about this Antithesis or, for lack of good Biblical teaching, they deny it outright!
* Note: I am using the common generic signifier “Man” for all human beings because it is far more simple than repeatedly saying “men and women” or “he and she” or even "humankind" along with their grammatically correct modifiers and verbs.
Total Depravity
This also applies to the Doctrine of Total Depravity. Evangelicals seem to commonly believe, along with most of Society, that people are basically good, but seriously flawed. Many Christians believe Man lost his innocence or righteousness in the Fall and gained guilt, but nothing was radically changed. In fact, what man gained was more than guilt, he acquired corruption or radical depravity of his heart or nature. (This condition requires a new heart or nature, i.e.- it requires “regeneration“. That is possible by grace in the process of becoming Christians. Before that happens, people are called “unregenerate”. This label is rarely used by today’s Evangelicals.
Instead of believing, as the Bible teaches, that people sin because they are unregenerate, today’s Evangelicals commonly believe people are sinners in the sense that all commit sins and have faults and problems in their lives and need forgiveness and help. Non-Christians, they believe, are willing and able to chose to become Christians, if they are approached in a loving, respectful way and hear about who Jesus was and is now and that He loves them and can be their Savior (i.e.-the Help they need). This view is not what Scripture teaches us about the unregenerate.
We hear a lot about Spirituality these days. It is a very popular topic and we hear that people everywhere are searching and hungering for spiritual experiences and meaning. This may be, but they are not seeking God. Yes, Human beings were created to seek, find, know and serve God. (Acts 17:24-28), but after the Fall, the reality is that none do! Here is the truth about this-
Rom 3:10 …“There is no one who is righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, there is not even one.” 13 “Their throats are opened graves; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of vipers is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 ruin and misery are in their paths, 17 and the way of peace they do not know.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Yes, Humans were created to be spiritual. It is part of the Image of God within them, a part of being a human person. Adam and Eve knew God. “Spirituality” in people today is a vestige, evidence left, of what once existed at Creation. It is now an end-all in itself, a substitute for actually knowing God. This is also true of most of what is called Religion (of any kind). But the Bible teaches the unregenerate, no matter how “spiritual” or “religious” are spiritually dead. They all know God exists, in spite of the denial of this by many of them, but they are alienated, separated from God. They do not seek Him at all. They hate Him.
Rom 1:18 … by their wickedness (they) suppress the truth. 21 for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, [sinners knowingly suppress the truth about God, refusing to honor Him] Paul says, in 5:10, we were enemies… and again in 8:7, (human beings are) …hostile to God.
cf Colossians 1:21 (we) were once estranged and hostile in mind
Rom 1:21 (Sinners are)…futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds are darkened.
cf Eph 4:17 Gentiles live in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart.
Antithesis and the Word of God
Whatever the immediate subject under discussion, enmity toward God eventually reveals itself in attitudes about the Word of God on that subject. The God who created the Natural world and human beings has revealed his mind, character, purposes, will and work. He is known through this revelation. That revelation is His Word. All true knowledge or all knowledge which corresponds to reality or the world as God made and intends for it to be is based on this revelation. It is universal, absolute Truth. It is the “Foundation” upon which all other knowledge is to be built. Unregenerate Man reveals his enmity toward God by his attitude toward the Word of God- he hates it and rejects it outright.
This Word is found in the natural World (known as General or Natural Revelation), in the original faculties of Human beings (who, being made in the Image of God, reveal what God is like as a Person), in the conscience of human beings (wherein there is Natural Moral Law), in the person of Jesus (God in the flesh!) and ultimately, finally, in the Scripture as a whole. These sources or types of Revelation from God are not equal. The Written Word is primary, the ultimate authority. All other revelation can be truly understood and rightly interpreted only as it is in harmony with this verbal, propositional Revelation (the complete, canonical Bible) As God is sovereign, so must His Word be. Unregenerate Man hates this very concept. Unregenerate human beings do not accept the things of God, they are foolishness to him and he can not understand them (1 Cor. 2:14)
A caveat is necessary here. Truth revealed by God is perfect and complete, without error; but our knowledge or understanding of it will never be perfect and complete in this life and is always subject to “human” error and limitations. The unregenerate are blind and we have sight, but we see only in part and what we do see are but poor reflections (1 Cor.13:8-13). We must be ever seeking to enlarge and improve our understanding of “Truth”, using all our human faculties to do so, and working to bring that understanding into ever more faithful harmony with the original, unchangeable Word of God. (I would like to say, the Holy Spirit will teach us and leave it at that (John 16:13). But while that is true, our understanding of what He is teaching can not be assured apart from the use of human resources which include Reason and Tradition and a lot of good exegetical and expository tools) Many have claimed to be led by the Spirit alone, only to be deceived. (I do not believe in “Solus Spiritus“)
Enmity toward God is demonstrated most stridently in a discussion with non-Christians about Science or scientific topics such as Evolution which require, not simply the “Scientific Method” but the assumptions of Philosophic Naturalism which is most decidedly anti-God. Debates that combine science and ethics and therefore Biblical values, such as embryonic stem cell research or euthanasia or abortion, also reveal the enmity of the unregenerate towards God. The regenerate always (if they are consistent) approach such subjects with God and what he has revealed in His Word. The unregenerate automatically do the opposite. They separate God and His Word from the discussion of every subject. Those inconsistent Christians who do the same thing are dualists. Thyey have divied their lives into 2 parts: God and His Word are for spiritual matters, but not for worldly matters such as government and the economy or bioethics. Such dualism is wrong. Christ and His Word are Sovereign over everything. This is what it means to confess Him as Lord of all!
Antithesis and the Law of God
When I say that all things are to be under the authority of the Word of God, it must be clear that the Word of God includes the Law of God. My approach to Christian living has changed greatly in recent years by looking to the entire, canonical Scripture for my authority. Of course, it has always been an article of faith with me that all Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable, etc (2 Tim 3:16) In practice, there was a period when the Sermon on the Mount was paramount. For most of my Christian life, the Book of Romans was my mainstay. I have not backed away from those parts of Scripture, but now I begin with Genesis and Creation (not Romans or the Gospels) and continue through the rest of the Book from there. That has been revolutionary for me. Among other matters, this “whole Bible-start at the beginning” approach has brought the Law of God front and center on this topic of how to live. It has also changed my understanding of what that Law is and this is crucial. Most Evangelicals read the Psalms that extol the value of the Law (e.g. 19:7-11 or 119) and automatically read “Bible” where they see the word “Law”. And then they go on to favorite parts of the Bible, usually in the New Testament, and agree with the Psalmist that the Law of God is precious and more valuable than gold, meaning their favorite parts of the New Testament. NO. “Law” means “Law” and it is more valuable than gold.
Now we must define “Law”! It has been traditional for centuries to define the Law of God as the that which Moses received at Sinai and then to divide it into three parts: Civil, Ceremonial and Moral. Most Evangelicals believe that the Civil Laws applied to the ancient Nation of Israel and to no other Nation. The Ceremonial parts of the Law, particularly about Sacrifices, were fulfilled and done away with in the work of Christ. Thus, to them, only the Moral Law is still in force for all today and that is usually narrowed down further to the last 6 of the Ten Commandments (the “Second Tablet”) and they are often spiritualized and privatized. (Not exclusively-the Second Commandment about idols and Worship and the Fourth Commandment about the Sabbath have always been a source of contention among some Christians, particularly the Reformed.) I believe dividing the Law in this 3-fold way is unnecessary and unrealistic (actually impossible in many cases).
It has also been traditional for Centuries to say there are 3 functions or uses of this Moral Law. First, it restrains evil in the world because it is in human nature to know it and it influences human behavior. Second, the Moral law leads people to Christ. When people try to live by the Moral Law (do not steal, commit adultery, murder, etc) they discover than are unable to always obey. They are convicted of their transgressions and their hopeless condition. This has traditionally led them to seek forgiveness and change by accepting Christ and Salvation when they hear the Gospel. The Third use of the Moral Law is to teach Christians what God expects of them, i.e.- how they are to live as Christians. There has been a lot of debate about all of this. Many Evangelicals simply hold that Christians are under no Law whatsoever once they have come to faith, because Salvation is all of Grace. Being alive in Christ, they believe, we have died to the Law. Period. (On some topics, such as Gay Marriage, however, they are glad to use proof texts garnered from the Law to bolster their opposition.)
Many associate any talk of the Law as binding on Christians, even the so-called Moral Commandments, with legalism and Salvation by works. If there is any Law at all for Christians, Evangelicals typically believe, it is only the Commandments to love God and Neighbors (Matt 22:37-39). I believe they are in error about this. How do we know what Love of God or Neighbor is apart from the Law and the Prophets (v.40)? The commands of the Law define and explain how we are to love them. For example, we love God by honoring His Name and keeping the Sabbath and we love our neighbors by respecting his property rights and never slandering him.
Theonomy
The concept of living under the Law of God is known as Theonomy. I am very reluctant to use that word, but it is a good one. Theonomy, as I understand and use it, is not the same as a school of thought within Reformed Theology called the Reconstruction Movement which uses the word Theonomy to include literal, specific, and detailed applications of Mosaic civil laws to modern civil government. There is no question, however, that there are Principles or Norms in the Torah that apply to Government and to Economics (and many other matters) in our Country today.
I love and will always study Theology, but I am not undecided or on the fence about the major doctrinal categories or still trying to decide between Theological Systems. I am Reformed, which means I believe in Covenant Theology (see my website series) and 5 Point Calvinism and I fully accept and stand by the Gospel of Grace with its 5 “Solas”. All that is settled for me. Being Reformed, I also believe the Law of God is binding on Christians for sanctification (not Salvation) and must be obeyed if we are to order and live our lives righteously as God requires. There is no contradiction here. Reformed Christians are not antinomian (against the Law, living apart from it). Antinomianism is a source of much trouble in the Church and World and it can be argued that many contemporary Evangelicals are antinomian. There are Christians who live under a Rule of Life other than the Law of God, e.g.- “Discipleship” or Spiritual Disciplines, but that is not the same as living under the Law.
In dealing with the Law, three matters must be clear. First, Obedience of the Law does not lead to Salvation, but Salvation leads to obedience. More specifically, to use concepts from Romans, Justification results in Sanctification. Sinners are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is not alone. It always includes or leads to obedience. The question is: obedience to what? The Law of God. Second, I am talking about the obedience God expects of all people. not only the saved. Jesus taught us to pray that God’s will be done on earth. His will is revealed in His Law. “On earth” means universally. The Church will obey the Law more faithfully and extensively than the unregenerate, but God holds the unregenerate accountable for obeying the fundamentals of His Law. Third and very important. I am defining “the Law” differently than most do who debate this subject. I want this to be understood. I do not define or limit the Law of God as the Ten Commandments. The Law of God consists of Norms or Principles for human behavior that are found in the Torah, beginning in Genesis and Creation. These are three crucial, essential distinctions!
The Torah is the 5 Books of Moses. Conversely, The Pentateuch is the Law. This is the Biblical use of the word “Law”. What we call the Old Testament was referred to by Jesus as having 2 parts- “the Law and the Prophets”, e.g.- Matt 7:12, 11:13 and 22:40) His reference was not to the Decalogue and the Prophets.
Beginning in Genesis, God reveals Himself and His will for His creation and particularly for all human beings. The basic, fundamental Laws or Norms or Principles in Genesis were declared or given by God before there was an Israel. That means these Laws are not limited to the Nation of Israel, but are universal and for Man, i.e.-all peoples and Nations. The Norms or principles laid out in Genesis are elaborated, expounded and applied throughout the five Books of Moses. Some of those applications were designed for Hebrew tribes wondering in a wilderness and later for the nation of Israel. Those specific applications are time dated. They can be considered as extrapolations from the basic Norms, but those Norms, according to Jesus, remain, never to be annulled (Matt.5:18:-19) The Prophets after Moses railed against pagan Kings and Nations as well as Israel for their transgressions of these essential Laws or principles. The importance of this subject has been lost under volumes of often vitriolic debate over arcane details. That does nothing but obfuscate the larger issues at stake here. A major consequence of this debate (especially between the Reconstruction Movement, Dispensationalism and certain Reformed Theologians) is the support it gives to the enmity of the natural man toward God. It has given both Christians and non-Christians reasons and excuses to ridicule God and His Word and to disobey Him. The unintended result is antinomianism. Not only is God offended, the world itself suffers.
There must be a return to teaching the Law. This an over riding concern for me. It is a concern about we are to live every day as Christians. Of course, the Gospel of Grace (not the watered down version so common today) must still be preached. I absolutely do not want to neglect or minimize that, but the need not being met by many Preachers and churches is for Believers to be taught what God expects of them about how to live in the world. This goes far beyond what is normally offered as “follow-up” with those who make “decisions for Christ” or what is required for Baptism or Confirmation or Church membership. And it is not all the same as Spiritual Formation or what is called Discipleship Training.
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Here is a summary of The Torah (The Law of God), spelling out Universal Human Rights and Responsibilities according to God. This is what must be taught to Christians and the world today, as well as the Gospel Long before the Decalogue (and Israel) was the Creation. In the Creation Narrative, found in the first two chapters of Genesis, we find Three Human Rights and their corollary Responsibilities. I summarize them here.
1. Everyone has a right to physical life- to live. No person has the right to
deprive another person of life or of anything essential to living.
Every person has the responsibility to live and to see to it that other
persons live as well
2. Everyone has a right to resources that are essential for maintaining life.
Everyone has responsibility to work for the development, procurement and equitable distribution of necessities to sustain life for self and others
3. All men and women have the right to marry and produce children
All men and women have the responsibility to marry and produce children [unless God has made this impossible in specific cases]
This Right and Responsibility has to do with fulfilling the Cultural Mandate to multiply, fill and subdue the Earth -Genesis 1: 26-28
These are the most fundamental, universal Human Rights and Responsibilities. In order to have a realistic opportunity to actualize them, there is an essential that must follow: Freedom. All human beings must have political, economic and social freedom, opportunity and security to enable them to exercise these rights and responsibilities.
The Decalogue elaborates on these “Human Rights” as follows-
1. God has the exclusive right to our allegiance (no other gods, no idols)
2. God (His Name and Day) has the right to be honored, respected
3. All Human Beings have a right to live
4. All people have the right to work and to periodically rest from work
5. Husbands and wives have a right to the fidelity of their spouses
6. Parents have the right to be honored, respected and obeyed
7. Property owners have a right to their property
8. Neighbors have a right to their privacy
9. People have a right to a fair and honest trial (i.e.- due process - the principle that the government must respect all of the legal rights that are owed to a person according to the law.)
Expressed as personal Responsibilities, the 10 Commandments become
1. I owe God my allegiance above all else.
2. I owe my respect to what belongs to God, especially His Name and Day.
3. I have the responsibility to both work and to rest periodically
4. I owe my parents honor, respect and [while I live at home] obedience
5. I owe respect to the life of others. I am my brother's keeper.
6. I owe fidelity to my spouse and to respect the marriage vows of others.
7. I owe respect to the property of others
8. I am responsible to be honest with others and to never slander them
9. I am responsible to stay out of other people's business
This summarizes what the Bible teaches about essential “Human Rights” and Responsibilities. All of this is what I believe the Law of God is about. All of these Principles from Genesis and the Decalogue are developed in the rest of the Torah. That elaboration will include the *Rights of women not to be abused; the *Right of Widows and Orphans (the truly Poor) to be cared for by family and community; the *Right of all accused of crime to due process, including a fair trial; the *right of the land to be cultivated and not ravaged and the right of animals to be cared for. Conversely, the latter Rights become the responsibility to care for animals and the environment.
Later the Prophets will appeal to the Torah/Law and apply it to Israel and to the Nations. Later still, Jesus and his Apostles will add new depths to the of the Law. Far from annulling it, that helps interpret and apply the Law today.
Theonomy means living under the authority of this Law, these Principles and Norms. They must not be lost through the use of what I consider to be hermeneutical casuistry and sophistry when the subject of Theonomy and the Law are debated. Irreparable damage and avoidable destruction to the lives of millions and to Nations around the globe have been done because the Church has failed to teach and promote this Law, especially to its own members. The Church could use a Nehemiah 8 Event!
The Torah gives us general Biblical principles by which we judge all claims to Rights in our Society. The Law gives us the Principles by which we can judge our Government and its Administration, all our elected and appointed Leaders, all domestic and foreign policies and programs, all budgets and legislation. It remains, of course, to work out definitions and details involved with the application of each in specific times and places.
For more on the Christian and the Law visit my website biblical_law
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Antithesis and Separation
We have been writing of the Antithesis as between Man and God, but the first use of this concept of Antithesis in the Bible is about the enmity between the unregenerate and the Elect as groups.
Genesis 3:15 "I will put enmity between you [Satan] and the woman [Eve], and between your offspring and her offspring;
There shall be perpetual enmity, hostility between the children of Darkness and the children of Light. This theme is played out repeatedly in the History of Israel throughout Scripture and of the Church to the present day.
There has been out right persecution and violent warfare between the two lines of people. The discussion of this phenomena by Theologians however, historically has focused on Truth vs. Error, between Christianity and All Other Religions, between what has been called Athens and Jerusalem. Perhaps it comes up most often when Christians seek personal counseling. Should they go to a secular Psychologist or to a Biblical Psychologist or to a Christian Psychologist who combines both Biblical and secular concepts? There can be major and radically different approaches involved here. I once went to a Counselor who told me that first off I would have to set aside my religious beliefs (he knew I was a Pastor) and approach the issues without them. The Antithesis was at work. After we worked through the problems, then, he said, I could pick up my Faith again. I left his office and sought counsel where Christ and prayer and the Bible was included.
The Antithesis is evident in all of the Academic subjects and so Christian parents and their children wrestle over the decision to attend private Christian schools or public secular ones. Some chose to withdraw and do home schooling. At any rate, whether it is Psychology, Social Studies, the Physical Sciences or English Lit There will be parts that are Scriptural and other parts that are very much in opposition with what Scripture teaches. The challenge is to recognize the Antithesis and separate the wheat from the chaff and to avoid synthesis in each academic field. This is another area that I feel drawn to. I am very interested in helping high school and college students do this kind of analysis. It is not the same as working through the world view questions or dealing with non-Biblical presuppositions
Matt 12:30- "He who is not with Me is against Me; Neutrality is impossible. (James 4:4, Matt 6:24) If something is opposing God, it follows that His People should oppose it or at least have nothing to do with it. The Bible is filled with illustrations of this. Both antithesis and commands to separate from evil appear frequently through out the Bible. Separation is being practiced when groups of Believers literally withdraw from Society in order to live their lives free from what they consider to be the world. The Amish come to mind, Many Pentecostal women and girls always wear skirts and never wear trousers and they cover their hair in church. In Fundamental churches, separation from the world is practiced with the prohibition of make-up, dancing, card playing, alcohol and tobacco. The principle of Separation from the world, either from false doctrine or immorality is absolutely Biblical. There are times when God commands it. “I heard another voice from heaven, saying, "Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues (Rev 18:4)
2 Cor 6:15 What agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will live in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.17 Therefore come out from them, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean; then I will welcome you, 18 and I will be your father, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.’ 7:1 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God.
Rom 16:17 I urge you, brothers and sisters, to keep an eye on those who cause dissensions and offenses in opposition to the teaching that you have learned; avoid them. ETC
Attempt to practice this admonition has led to many churches and Denominations dividing. Some churches will have nothing to do with other churches whom they consider to be apostate. Whether all this division is wise or necessary, the Principle of Separation remains. Application is the problem.
The Doctrine of Separation comes up when Christians and non-Christians go into business partnership together. Will they share the same values and goals? It certainly is a real problem for Christian employees in many companies, many of whom are required to do things that violate their ethics.
2 Cor 6:14 Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship is there between light and darkness?
James 4:4 Adulterers! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
The always difficult issue is deciding where and when and how to separate from the world. We do, after all, live in it. The Bible is silent about particulars in many areas. Decisions are often made based on inference or deduction, without actual Scriptural warrant. This has resulted in deadening legalism. Many youth have been understandably repulsed by the divisions and legalism they have seen and have become reactionary. They have come to ridicule the entire concept of Antithesis and Separation, especially in these times when multiculturalism and both religious and moral pluralism are considered essential and almost considered sacred. In addition, individual freedom is greatly valued and besides, they say, all that matters is love and love is never to have to say “I’m sorry”. Many youth can not imagine a God who draws lines and insists on certain standards while banning others. But God most emphatically does! “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)
Younger Christians have also come to doubt any claims for anything to be absolutely True while the Antithesis requires that there be absolutes: Light vs. Darkness. Life vs. Death, Good vs. Bad, Saved vs. Unsaved, Christian vs. Non-Christian, Regenerate vs. Unregenerate, Heaven vs. Hell. In vs. Out. All these, it is said, are absolute categories and they are arbitrary, divisive, and oppressive. Many young people reject them. Christians are to be non-judgmental, it is said. And yet, God has said holiness, which involves making and keeping such distinctions, must be practiced. See 1 Pet 1:15-16 cf. Lev 20:22-26, etc
Among conservative Evangelicals, another objection to Antithesis and Separation is made in the name of “sharing the Gospel”. It is a given to many that contextualization, being “incarnational”, fitting in, building bridges and finding points of contact and agreement with non-Christians is required. It is argued that We are urged to seek common grounds with non-Christians. That this means compromise or blurring doctrinal or moral distinctives is acceptable, even desirable. Muslims who become Christians may continue to be Muslim. Christians who advocate all this have exchanged Antithesis for Synthesis. This in itself demonstrates thinking that is not God’s thinking
The almost unknown and unpracticed Doctrines of Antithesis, Theonomy and Separation must be recovered! This leads to the issue of Transforming Culture. How does the Christian relate to the world in which he lives if he is to be separate from it? See the Essay after this one posted below.
Antithesis and Evangelism
Rom 1:18 … by their wickedness (the unregenerate) suppress the truth. 21 for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, [sinners knowingly suppress the truth about God, refusing to honor Him] Paul says, in 5:10, we were enemies… and again in 8:7, (human beings are) …hostile to God.
Colossians 1:21 (we) were once estranged and hostile in mind
Rom 1:21 (Sinners are)…futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds are darkened.
Eph 4:17 (the unregenerate) live in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart.
Our approach to the unregenerate is not to marshal evidence from Science or philosophical arguments and Reason to prove anything to them about God or to convince them to accept Christ. They are constitutionally unable to be persuaded or to accept Christ. These Scriptures (above) explain why the attempt to use the verification or evidential approach to get unregenerate people to believe in God, let alone to come to Christ, is futile.
In my High School and College days and for years after that, I would try to reason with non-believers, presenting logical, rational evidence for faith. I also shared ways in which the Gospel could be verified by their experience. “Try God, try prayer. See for your self the difference this will make in your life.” The latter is the most popular method of “witnessing” among Evangelicals who try to do it. It usually goes along with an invitation to church. “Come with me. You’ll enjoy the Service, especially our Praise Band.” I no longer use these approaches. Scripture has convinced me that the unregenerate can not and will not seek God or Christ. As Jesus said, “No one comes to me less the Father draws him”(John 6:55). “All that the Father gives me will come to me” (John 6:37).
Paul says (above), the unregenerate “suppress” all the Truth that confronts them about God. “Suppress” or “katecho” means to hold fast, i.e.- to hold down, to restrain the Truth about God. The Word of God is everywhere, but they do not and can not hear it. Evidence for God is available, they just do not and can not see it. As Jesus and the Prophets said, the unsaved are deaf and blind. And this is because their hearts are hardened. They restrain the Truth that comes to them, i.e.- they refuse to allow it to move into their lives and make a difference. Remember they have enmity in their hearts toward God, not openness.
In order to believe, the unregenerate must be given a new heart, they must be regenerated (yes, they must be “born again before they will believe, not the other way around) The best means to that end is “presuppositional“.
Presuppositional Apologetics
I intentionally use reason and evidence to try to persuade non-Christians to question and doubt their presuppositions, i.e.- the answers they have come up with on their own to answer the world view questions. Remember those answers will be opposite the answers that God gives. See 2 Cor 10:3 Over the last 40 years or so, Post Modern concepts have increasingly convinced many young people that there is no absolute Truth. They believe what goes for truth is socially constructed and subject to change. What is true for me may not be true for you. This in itself is a truth claim, but arguing about “Truth” with them is usually futile.
The topic that today’s generation are more willing to talk about is Morality. This is a more fruitful topic to begin with than Truth, but thankfully, it leads to the questions of “Whose morality?” What measure can we use in judging moral behavior? What is “truly” moral and what is not? On what basis is genocide right or wrong? or euthanasia? Etc This opens a door for them to hear the Word. I do not try to prove to them what the Word teaches about these topics is true. The object is to provoke or facilitate doubt in the unbeliever’s mind- and thus to remove rocks in the soil and break it up the for the unadulterated Word (1 Peter 2:2), sans my clever arguments, to be planted and do its job, trusting that it will. I do believe in Sola Scriptura.
The spiritual warfare of attacking and destroying arguments against God is a very important and necessary one. (1 Cor 10:5) I have a passion and mind for doing it. The idea is to explore every academic subject, looking for the faith beneath it, the presuppositions or simple assumptions, upon which it is based. Most people in a particular field are not aware of these assumptions or do not care. Mathematicians, for example, are interested in simply doing math. Period. They are not interested in the Philosophy of Math. But that is where the conflict is and there is where it must be fought.
World View
I use a “world view” approach in talking with non-Christians. “World View” is the way a person understands how his world works. It is how he views or sees the way things are, trying to fit them together. Even people who reject the concept of world view, have one. Every one does. People do not have a mind for God and think thoughts that oppose His thoughts. The “thoughts” are not every single thing that pass through our minds, but certain categories of thoughts. The antithesis does not mean the unregenerate sinners can not do math or use computers or write music or play football. They are still human beings and retain all the normal human faculties, including the faculty for rational thinking. They can organize for flood relief and build houses for the homeless. Christians can cooperate with non-Christians in all such matters. We all share these natural, human abilities; but, none of this means or proves they know God and do not hate Him. The antithesis means the unregenerate do not have God’s perspective on anything. They have perspectives, but just not God’s. Their knowledge does not begin with Him and therefore is incomplete or inadequate or even perverse. They do not know the purposes, designs or intentions of God about anything. They do not know what pleases Him. These are the categories of thought wherein the unregenerate are antithetical to God.
They do know the answers to the essential questions of human life, i.e.-the “world view” questions: Who are we? Why are we here? Where did we come from? Where are we going? Why do we suffer? What is the remedy for that? Putting it another way- apart from God and His Word, there are no valid, satisfying answers to the questions: What is prime reality?, Who or what is Man?, What comes after death? What is living supposed to be all about? What is the basis for morality? What is the meaning of History ? (is it going anywhere? what does it all add up to?). What the unregenerate think are the answers to these questions will always be the opposite (antithetical) to God’s answers and therefore, wrong! (Yes, that is an absolute.) In their hearts, non-Christian artists and architects, engineers and welfare workers still are enemies of God. Deep down within them, there is enmity toward Him. This all means it is imperative to discern the foundational thoughts of Man in all fields. They are antithetical to God’s thoughts and we must stand against them.
I simply proclaim or present the Truth about Reality, God, Christ or the Gospel (the presuppositions I bring with me into the conversation or sermon) and let the Holy Spirit work (see James 1:18, 21; 1 Peter 1:23; Eph 1:13; Rom 10:17). Faith comes from hearing the Word! Nothing else is required. I do not try to argue or persuade or convince unbelievers with reason and evidence to believe the Truth, e.g.- I never argue Creationism with the unregenerate or the subject of Marriage or Abortion. The heart that God regenerates by Grace hears the Word. As Jesus was to say, “(Those who are) My sheep (are the ones that) hear my voice”. As Paul and multitudes have testified, “I was blind, but now, by an act of God alone, I see”.
Follow-up after Conversion
After regeneration of the heart takes place and faith has been confessed, I would go on to give the reasons and evidence that confirm what that heart now believes. Doing this is very important ministry, especially to young Christians and it must be done before they go on to “secular” higher education where the Religions of Rationalism, Naturalism and Scientism prevail and the ideologies of Post Modernism are dominant and the hermeneutics of suspicion colors all that they read or hear (except, for some reason, what their Professors teach). It is far beyond time for churches to realize that their Sunday School must actually be a school and for Christian Education to actually provide education and to realize that Spiritual Formation Hour is no substitute for either. If most of the children of Christian families are going to continue to attend public schools, and they are, parents and churches absolutely must “step up their game” of grounding their children in the Faith while they are young and still under their care before “game over“. It is their God-given duty to do so!
On a personal note, allow me to digress. I have found over many years that this is a very hard sell to most churches and Christians. They simply do not see the need or urgency to do what I am taking about here, even while their children fall away from the Faith. Most Evangelicals I know are anti-intellectual and ahistorical about their Faith (even when they are not this way about other areas of their life). They are blithely unaware of the antithetical, critical, corrosive influence that Academia will have on the Faith of their children. But then, they do not see the relevance of Theology and Doctrine to their own faith and life as Christians. They much prefer “Inspirational’ and immediately practical Sermons and function on a very pragmatic and subjective, affective level. This is tragic.
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