abstract: The law of God was given as absolute and binding upon all men, as both King Nebuchadnezzar and King Darius (Dan. 5 and 7) affirmed following a gracious wake up call

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by Thomas Beresford

During the Monarchy of Israel, King Ahab and his wife Jezebel personified recalcitrant antagonistic antinomianism at its zenith. The civil leader of Israel had more of a materialistic preoccupation with the national economic health, than with the national spiritual crisis befalling his subjects that was induced by the "cause and effect" of Covenant law (Deut. 11:16-17). Jezebel had no small part in bringing divine retribution on the nation and was unwilling to humble herself to God's law, but antagonistically warred against it.

When God brought about divine deliverance from the prophets of Baal and the nation fell on their collective liturgical faces confessing, "The Lord, He is the God," the hissing threats of the Serpent's fangs pierced the chest of the theonomic, presuppostional brawny Tishbite because he lowered the shield of faith, and his confidence in theistic truth was venomously corrupted, putting him to flight.

September 11, 2001 will remain an infamous day for the United States. Terror-stricken by surprise and disbelief, Americans watched the impenetrable economic and military fortresses collapse into relic heaps of what colonial Scottish Puritanism birthed due to practical application of God's law.

The blessings and cursings of the Covenant are clear, non-negotiable, and absolute. Likewise, the pattern for divine chastening is succinct and demonstrative. The law of God was given as absolute and binding upon all men, as both King Nebuchadnezzar and King Darius (Dan. 5 and 7) affirmed following a gracious wake up call. If men rejected the law of God and the priesthood was corrupted, then prophets were molded, refined, and sent to rebuke the nation. The supremacy of Jehovah's Code and the condemning acts of aggression against it was the concise message the prophets uttered. When the prophets were "killed" and the people were drunken in antinomianism, an enemy was raised up by the hand of the Almighty to inflict casualties, spoil the land, and put the Covenant family into bondage.

Following the terrorist attack, a plethora of anti-Christ prayers and egalitarian notions of "God" were rife inside the walls of Washington. Politicians, including the President, affirmed that Islam is the friend of the "One Nation under God."

However, the Triune God declared War between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent after the Fall in the Garden. Christians cannot "agree to disagree" when it comes to the "One Faith." Christians cannot be "neutral." There is a war going on, and the "violent take it by force." When the Covenant family should be presenting unbelievers with the message of a conquering Christ, the counterfeit faith rams airliners into U.S. buildings.

But Washington calls these antichrists, "friends," and tries to establish religious pluralism as civil and virtuous. Nations embracing Islam reap the same sanctions ascribed in Holy Writ for a land that rejects Jehovah, does not kiss His Son, and worships other gods. Such nations become barren, poverty stricken, plague ridden, and a reproach to bordering nations.

The great patriot, Patrick Henry said, "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by CHRISTIANS; not on religions, but on the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST." This Calvinistic Christian understood that unless a nation, "Kiss the Son," the Father's anger will be kindled and that nation will perish away.

There are a few but growing number (both quantitatively and qualitatively) of prophets in this ecclesiastically impotent hour. An hour when pastors remain aloof and pontificate voluminous, self-righteous, and Arminian machinations as to why they have excused themselves from the cultural task of dominion. The objective, they say, is to "win souls"; meanwhile, the culture goes to Hell.

Yet, the sandy foundation of contemporary Montanism is sinking and buckling under biblical relevancy. The growing wave of Knoxian Christians are making noise and becoming a brighter "blip" on the national radar screen, and the Serpent's minions aren't amused. Theonomy is challenging politics, international policy, immoral legalities, polytheism in all forms, and shedding light on the unfruitful works of darkness, which the reverend Jerry Falwell correctly identified on Pat Robertson's 700 club a short time following the Terrorist attack on 9-11. National sins of perverseness (e.g., homosexuality), "He that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once" (Prov. 28:18), and murder (e.g., abortion), "For blood, it defileth the land" (Num. 35:33), incur the swift wrath of God on any nation. However, Falwell's omission of retreatist theoretical Chiliastic eschatology was glaring. The very social ills the reverend cited have been aided and abetted by the dispensational teaching that calls for Christian cultural withdrawal.

As with Elijah, the Serpent's minions hissed at the covenantal language of sanctions that Falwell insightfully employed. The radar could no longer hide the target, it engulfed the entire screen. The national conscience was ripe and ears were perked. There is no greater compliment than to incur the hearty hatred and rancor of the wicked. A national nerve was pricked and the seeds of the truth that disobedience brings sanctions were firmly planted. But alas, a few days after on Geraldo (September 19), the brawny prophet from Lynchburg, Virginia buckled because he too lowered his faith shield and was struck by antinomian, pluralistic venom. He profusely offered apologies. The theistic, reformational seeds were countered...but not uprooted! The Word does not return void.

The pragmatic sentiments of the wicked are to be expected in a cause and effect universe. Christians can expect hatred and injustices from unbelievers just as Christ said. However, when a land has been broken up by the preaching of God's law, and the Spirit of the Almighty has changed the hearts of the people, this leads to the establishment of a distinctly Christian social order. At that time, bondage, socialism, wickedness, injustice, and terror will be eradicated.

How do we get there? The church must take the high ground that she once had in the colonial era. Said directly, the church must aggressively go on the offensive. Using the truth of God, we need to put covenant breakers on the defensive, chase them (including the politicians) relentlessly with the Law-Word of Jehovah, and insist on constitutional integrity.

Courageous, biblically oriented Christians must take the cogent theology of Scripture to the hottest places of battle, define the terms of engagement, and deliver the Sword, now! The sleeping Bride will take notice, join ranks, and in so doing, glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Thomas Beresford is the pastor of Jupiter Presbyterian & Reformed Covenant Church, Jupiter, Florida. He can be reached at pastorthom@juno.com.

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