21 December 2021
We get too much very bad advice from non-Covenant people. It's time to reestablish a Covenant perspective on things.
The world rejects the Covenant. We should never expect Covenant people to have much influence on government policy. That doesn't keep us from raising objections in certain settings. When those teachable moments arise, we should be ready to declare the biblical standards. That way, when folks hear the message, they'll be forced to stand before God with no excuses.
One particular issue is this nutty secularist notion of religious tolerance. On the one hand, we should be very cynical about human religions. In most social settings, there's not much use in declaring our position on things, but to simply act on our convictions. Most of the time, we don't start the conversation, but wait for God to open the door. You don't do evangelism by sales pitch and debate. Embracing the Covenant is not a rational decision. It's a matter of someone coming under conviction. We share the content of our convictions as an offer, not as a form of conquest, and only when the Spirit moves. The gospel is actually rather exclusive.
People outside the Covenant are pagans by definition. The Covenant is a faith commitment to God's Law. It presumes spiritual birth, but there is no way anyone can confirm that for another. So we hold forth the standard of the Covenant and see how people react. Someone claiming spiritual birth who won't embrace God's Law should be treated as pagan, because it will be an a question of whether they have their eternal fire insurance, whereas a commitment to keeping the Lord's Covenant is pretty obvious.
Two other broad religious groups claim a common faith heritage, and it's a lie. Jesus Himself said Judaism was a departure from the Covenant of Moses. We cannot make common cause with Jews on anything, especially those who claim to be Jewish in terms of an ethnic identity. The same goes with Muslims. Allah is not the same God as Jehovah. Theirs is a syncretic mishmash of pagan moon god with various intellectual notions picked from organized Christian and Jewish religion. They reject the Bible and they reject Christ.
All other religions are even more foreign to the Bible. It's not a question of coexisting socially; that's not a problem. It's a question of taking them seriously as fellow travelers in this world. The proper emphasis is not looking for commonalities. The Covenant is not a mere matter of culture and education; it's a heart-borne feudal surrender to God. Our God consistently portrays Himself as a nomad Sheikh. We do not consider civilization a blessing. Following Christ is not a matter of human organization. It's a divine Kingdom of Hearts, rooted in Heaven. It's mysticism by definition.
We engage the human existence on this fallen plane as a matter of tactics alone; the strategy is ineffable and otherworldly in nature. There is one proper model of human organization revealed from Heaven -- tribal feudal covenant community. It's flexible enough to cover all human needs. We define "human need" as the Covenant mission of glorifying God. So we have no interest in changing the world; it's doomed. Our only interest is individuals discovering the divine path out of this world.
God grants each of His Covenant servants a domain on this earth. It's not so much a physical concept but a matter of moral awareness. We know that God has delegated to us certain feudal responsibilities. It's part of the structure of our convictions. We are stewards of certain obligations regarding the talents God has given us. We guard the boundaries of that domain as He directs through our convictions. Specific issues we face will vary with the context. Sometimes we absorb the thrusts of sin without reacting. Sometimes we might be required to actually shed blood.
With that as the background, we then come together in fellowship by merging our domains. They merge on the basis of shared convictions. A valid church leadership offers an added measure of covering against demonic interference by merging dominions in faith. Again, Creation itself is feudal in nature. Satan is bound by our Covenant obedience, which informs our convictions.
Thus, people outside the Covenant boundaries that God reveals to us are not family. There may be degrees of kinship for folks who share more or less of our convictions, but there needs to be a clear boundary in your convictions when folks are simply not spiritual kin. That excludes a lot of "Christians" already, and certainly excludes Jews, Muslims and everyone else. Nobody on this earth has any business holding over your head a requirement to embrace anyone outside the boundaries. However, you should recognize the social boundaries of the world around you, even when you must reject them internally.
Resistance to social and legal demands are a matter of conviction. Our general tactic is to ignore anything that doesn't infringe on our mission from God. We can be friendly with anyone who wants peace, but nobody outside the Covenant has more than a conditional claim on our loyalty.
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