“Whether you realize it or not, if you live in the West, you are
currently engulfed in a civilization-wide cultural war that is taking place all
around you. Maybe you’re aware of it, or maybe you’re not. It doesn’t matter.
The cultural war is real and it is vicious. And unlike a traditional shooting war
between different nations, in a cultural war there are no civilians. There are
no neutral parties, since no fence-sitting is permitted, and there is no common
ground to be found. No one is permitted to sit it out or refuse to take sides;
sooner or later, you are going to be forced to declare yourself by either
publicly submitting to the current ruling culture or openly rejecting it.”
– Vox Day
As mentors, we have to be aware of all the players in this culture
war – and their methods. Furthermore, we need to not only become more aware of
our situation, we must become the salt and light in our families, churches and
communities. This requires the systematic study and practice of discerning what
is true in ALL things – and then tell the truth!
All it takes is time and commitment – and the grace of God! - CL
Before posting Study 5, I would like to further explain some of the
fundamental structure of the whole series of CAP and the basic premise behind
it.
Over the last 15- 20 years, I have read many books and watched some DVD series on Christian history and American politics. I have also tried to keep up with social, cultural, scientific and economic developments. As Christians, we should have a solid grounding in most of these areas.
So far, I have brought into play in this CAP series - two books and one DVD. I periodically draw from each, as I see the topic developing. If I had to select just one resource which encapsulates most of what I’ve learned and best expresses it in a readable style, it would be Gary North’s “Unconditional Surrender” book. In fact, he wrote it because he couldn’t find one which he could recommend to others.
This book has become the basic track on which our CAP series will run, in the short term at least. It is so well organized that we don’t have to read the whole book from beginning to end chronologically. Each topic has been helpful to me as an entity unto itself, with an excellent summary and conclusion. Some of you might want to order it yourself and I would certainly recommend it. The best price I have found is at American Vision. A free download is also available.
The basic premise behind this book is that we are now living in this phase of the Kingdom of God, which Jesus began upon His first advent. This is fundamentally in opposition to what a large percentage of Christians believe. That is why I have decided to post Mr. North’s Preface to his book.
(The following is from “Unconditional Surrender”.)
Over the last 15- 20 years, I have read many books and watched some DVD series on Christian history and American politics. I have also tried to keep up with social, cultural, scientific and economic developments. As Christians, we should have a solid grounding in most of these areas.
So far, I have brought into play in this CAP series - two books and one DVD. I periodically draw from each, as I see the topic developing. If I had to select just one resource which encapsulates most of what I’ve learned and best expresses it in a readable style, it would be Gary North’s “Unconditional Surrender” book. In fact, he wrote it because he couldn’t find one which he could recommend to others.
This book has become the basic track on which our CAP series will run, in the short term at least. It is so well organized that we don’t have to read the whole book from beginning to end chronologically. Each topic has been helpful to me as an entity unto itself, with an excellent summary and conclusion. Some of you might want to order it yourself and I would certainly recommend it. The best price I have found is at American Vision. A free download is also available.
The basic premise behind this book is that we are now living in this phase of the Kingdom of God, which Jesus began upon His first advent. This is fundamentally in opposition to what a large percentage of Christians believe. That is why I have decided to post Mr. North’s Preface to his book.
(The following is from “Unconditional Surrender”.)
PREFACE
This book was born of necessity. In 1980, I
was publishing a bi weekly economic newsletter, Remnant Review,which
was sent to people who are interested in ways of preserving and increasing
their capital. In my June 6, 1980 issue, I wrote about the "Four G’s” in
investing: gold, groceries, guns, and God. I had plenty of recommendations on
the first three, but when I came to the fourth, I got stuck. I wanted to recommend a good introductory book
on the significance of Christianity for the modern world, and I couldn't
think of one. There are books of many kinds, all dealing with one
aspect or another of Christian faith and worship, but I couldn't think of one
that was general, theologically accurate, comprehensive, and readable.
This began to bother me. At the time I was
publishing seven newsletters - and writing four of them - so my time was
extremely scarce. Furthermore, I ran the Institute for Christian Economics, and
one of my continuing projects was writing a complete economic commentary on the
Bible. Then as now, I spent a minimum of ten hours a week, fifty weeks per
year, on this project. So I knew I didn't have much time to write a book. At
the same time, I became convinced that an introductory book was needed.
To get the job done without ruining my
schedule, I decided to write this book, but with a time limit. That limit was
two weeks. I began on July 2, 1980, and I finished the first draft on July 14.
In fact, I even had half a day to spare, since I finished in the afternoon.
This was the last book I ever wrote on a
typewriter: an IBM Selectric III. By the end of the year, I had
switched to a word processing program called SSI, which a year later became
WordPerfect. I used the SSI program that another ministry owned. I
plugged into its minicomputer by means of a wire strung across the
street. In those days, SSI sold for $7,500, which in today’s money is
$20,000. It ran on a $25,000 used minicomputer, which in today’s money is
$66,000. ICE bought it for me to use. Mistake! Within a year,
it was possible to buy WordPerfect for $495, and an IBM PC for under
$2,000. I had bought too soon! But in just one week, I doubled my
output. No other tool ever accomplished that in my lifetime.
I had James Jordan read the manuscript, and he
made some important suggestions. I have included most of them in the final
version. Still, the book is basically the product of two weeks of writing. The
entire project took one month: from start to final draft.
I wanted it to be readable. Complexity makes books unreadable, so I
wrote it rapidly: no notes, no outline, and with only the chapter headings in
mind. But I had been studying the Bible for over twenty years before I began
this project. (I used the King James Version for citations, since most readers
own this translation.) With Jordan’s help, I made major revisions in the
chapter on “Man”, in the section dealing with salvation. I am least happy with
this section, since it's more complex than I had hoped, but I have been unable
to figure out a way to make it shorter or easier. I wanted it to be
accurate.
I simply didn't have time to be more thorough.
I hope that my approach has at least made the book readable. Anyone who
wants to pursue some of these topics in greater detail can follow through by
reading further. No single handbook can serve as a final source on the meaning
and implications of Christianity.
I decided originally to call the
book Christianity: What Difference Does
It Make? Some of my associates wanted me to call it Sheer
Christianity, a title reminiscent of C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity. But
I stuck with Unconditional Surrender, since I think it comes closer
to the major themes of this book.
I wanted to produce a handbook that could serve as an introduction to the
basics of Christianity, as well as a study guide for people who are already
Christians, but
who have never spent much time considering the social, political, and economic
implications of Christianity. It might be thought of
as a fat tract. It might be thought of as a Christian manifesto. My
hope is that it will at least be thought of.
The book is divided into three sections. The
first section, "Foundations," covers
the fundamentals of orthodox Christianity. These are the religious principles
that set Christianity apart from all other religions. The second section, "Institutions," covers the
implications of Christianity for the major institutions of human life. We
should expect to find a very different approach in each major institution from
what we would expect to find in non-Christian cultures. Finally, there is the
third section on "Expectations." What
should we expect in the future? How will we implement the principles we found
in section one? Do we have time to develop the institutional base of section
two? What is the proper plan of action? What are we required by God to do?
In the third edition, published in 1987, I
added the chapter on “Time”, and
in this edition, I have added another chapter, “Judgment”. I did this because I recognized that the book
should be structured in terms of the five points of the biblical covenant
model. This five-point structure was the basis of Ray Sutton’s
book, That You May Prosper: Dominion By Covenant, which the
ICE published in 1987. The first three chapters of this book matched the
first three chapters of his.
I knew in 1980 that this book will inevitably
offend everybody. It breaks with most of what we know as "establishment
Christianity." There are many establishment Christians who think they
aren't part of a religious establishment, but they are. When they read this
book, and if they think about what they are reading, they will either have to
reject much of what I conclude in this book or else they will have to begin to
labor long and hard to rethink the religious principles they have been taught
for many years.
Any time a reader doesn't like what he's
reading, he should check his premises. Then he should check out the
documentation I provide. Errors in any human book are inevitable, but
it's a question of reducing errors to a minimum. This book breaks with many of the
current slogans of Christian churches, yet it was written in terms of this
presupposition: the Bible is the inspired Word of God. It was
perfect in the original manuscripts (autographs). It is because I believe the
Bible is inspired with respect to both its historical data and its theological
judgments that I decided to write this book. I am convinced that much
of what passes for conservative Christianity in the early twenty-first century
is neither conservative nor Christian.
What I recommend to the reader is simple to state
but difficult to achieve: respect for
what the Bible says. Something isn't Christian because I say it is, but
because the Bible says it is. At the same time, something isn't Christian just
because some pastor or some familiar book says it is. Just because you haven't
heard anything like the message this book presents doesn't mean it isn't an
accurate message. You have to make up your own mind. Tradition is no substitute
for personal responsibility. Slogans you learned in Sunday school may not be
what the Bible really teaches. Just because you may have an outline at the foot
of each page in your Bible doesn't guarantee that the text of the Bible teaches
what's in those footnotes. You have to decide, not in terms of
what men say, but what the Bible says.
