Category — Creation-Fall-Redemption Ground Motive

“Meaning is the being of all that has been created and the nature even of our self-hood”.
— pg. 4, Herman Dooyeweerd, A New Critique of Theoretical Thought, Vol. I

“It is the custom among ecclesiastical socialists to deny that there is Biblical warrant for private property. Their ground for this is the often repeated Biblical declaration, “The earth is the LORD’S” (Ex. 9:29, etc.). They choose to neglect the total witness of Scripture to private property. The so-called communism of Acts 2:41-47, also cited by ecclesiastical socialists, was simply a voluntary sharing on the part of some (Acts 5). It was limited to Jerusalem. Because the believers took literally the words of Christ concerning the fall of Jerusalem (Matt. 24:1-28), they liquidated their properties there. The wealthier members placed some or all of these funds at the church’s disposal, so that a witness could be made to their friends and relatives before Jerusalem fell. Very early, persecution drove all but a nucleus out of Jerusalem (Acts 8:1).

The earth is indeed the Lord’s, as is all dominion, but God has chosen to give dominion over the earth to man, subject to His law-word, and property is a central aspect of that dominion. The absolute and transcendental title to property is the Lord’s; the present and historical title to property is man’s. The ownership of property does not leave this world when it is denied to man; it is simply transferred to the state. If the contention of the liberals that the earth is the Lord’s, not man’s, is to be applied as they require it, then it must be applied equally to the state; the state then must be denied all right to own or control property.”

— Rousas John Rushdoony †2001

One of the reasons for the Reformation, one that does not get the press it deserves, is the break with a ground-motive that was and is at odds with the Biblical motive of Creation-Fall-Redemption. The reigning spiritual structure of the years preceding the Reformation was expressed in the writings of Thomas Aquinas — the Nature-Grace synthesis, the child of the marriage between Hellenic and Biblical notions. The creeping specter of the synthesizing attitude is still around today. It means the end of Protestantism if it continues.

It is a fascinating fact of church history that the Eastern branch of the church has avoided this particular pitfall that has infected the Western. The Eastern theologians have put a bar at the door of Being and said, “None shall enter”. Their apophatic methodology has saved them from much of the Hellenic mistakes found in the West. This has laid them open, perhaps mistakenly, to the charge of mysticism, but the West’s rationalism has been and continues to be it’s Achilles heel — “You shall be like God” is a temptation that comes in all sorts of forms.

Semper reformanda.

“Woe to him that receives; for if one having need receives, he is guiltless; but he that receives not having need, shall pay the penalty, why he received and for what, and, coming into straits (confinement), he shall be examined concerning the things which he has done, and he shall not escape thence until he pay back the last farthing (Matthew 5:26). But also now concerning this, it has been said, Let your alms sweat in your hands, until you know to whom you should give“.
— Didache, Chapter One

Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword (cf. Ezekiel 25):

From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.

As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.
— Psalm 17:14-15

Present prosperity and fruitfulness is not a definitive marker of God’s favor. It could simply mean that you are a tool in God’s hands. A hope in what is unseen and yet to come, despite current troubles, is that sign of a prosperity that will never perish, spoil or fade.

“The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot”. — Psalm 16:5

Here is my definition of relevance — knowing the Word and knowing the heart. This means identifying and pressing the antitheses, discerning between the religious ground-motives and those aspects of life that are relative. Identify and press the deep antithesis between the two kinds of men, identify and press the antithesis between the Word and every other worldview. On the other hand, accept truth where you find it, but reject the ground-motives. When minsters start to trade what is absolute (the Word) for what is relative (man’s temporal-aspectual experience), make the relative absolute, or dismiss truth because it is spoken by an enemy, the battle is lost.

“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart”.
— Hebrews 4:12

The pomo rejects the meaning in the text, because they reject authorial intent. The Christian accepts the meaning in the text, and sometimes in spite of authorial intent.

“…let every good and true Christian understand that wherever truth may be found, it belongs to his Master; and while he recognizes and acknowledges the truth, even in their religious literature, let him reject the figments of superstition, and let him grieve over and avoid men who, when they knew God, glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things”.
- Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, Book II

The assumption that the Bible contains error is based on one very large erroneous assumption: I do not.

All so-called “errors” of the Bible can be distilled down to just a few real problems that exist in the reader, not the text: ignorance, prejudice, a bad conscience, or — the big one — the supra-temporal motive of the godless heart. Dead men can’t perceive light (Ephesians 4:18).

The inerrancy debate should refocus its attack on the epistemology of the critics- the assumption that man’s autonomous mind is superior.

To clarify: this is not to deny the place of MSS analysis, textual analysis, ecclesiastical exegesis and in-house differences and debate.

“Neither is sin from eternity, not will it last to eternity. For that which did not always exist shall not last forever.”
— Gregory of Nyssa

There is a kind of madness in a denial of the truth about ourselves. Any other assumption about our life, except as hopeless sinners, cannot stand up to the existential limitation of death. There is no other explanation for our inevitable, personal demise.

Why do I die? Apart from the original curse, there is no explanation.

How can I live? Apart from the only One who overcame the grave, there is no answer.

It is not a matter of disagreeing with alternatives, for there are no alternatives — there is no other kind of death, there is no other resurrection. The whole history of philosophy since the garden is one long attempt at another explanation — at the creation of a mythological alternative to the real history of this world.