The name Vine & Fig Tree comes from the Prophet Micah, the fourth chapter. Our web pages are organized around the seven themes we find in his prophecy.
| Micah's Prophecy | Archetype |
| And it will come
about in the last days That the mountain of the House of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains And it will be raised above the hills |
The Kingdom: "God with us" |
| And the peoples
will stream to it. And many nations will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD And to the House of the God of Jacob, |
Catholicism: The Universal Appeal of the Kingdom |
| That He may teach
us about His ways And that we may walk in His paths." For from Zion will go forth the Law Even the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem. |
Law: The King's Law vs. Man's "law." |
| And He will judge
between many peoples And render decisions for mighty, distant nations. Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation will not lift up sword against nation And never again will they train for war. |
Peace: Beating Our Swords into Plowshares |
| And each of them will sit under his | Family: God's Central Unit of Society |
| Vine and under his fig
tree, With no one to make them afraid. For the LORD of hosts has spoken. |
Garden-Land: Reversing the Stalinization of the Farm |
| Though all the
peoples walk Each in the name of his god, As for us, we will walk In the Name of the LORD our God forever and ever. "In that day," says the LORD, "I will assemble the lame, I will gather the outcast And those whom I have afflicted: I will make the lame a remnant, And the outcast a strong nation; So the LORD will reign over them in Mount Zion From now on, even forever." Micah 4:1-7 |
Community: No Man is an Island |
| Learn as much as you want — Our interpretation of this passage in 7 words | | 100 words | | 1000 words |
Christians dedicated to extending the reign of King Jesus and overthrowing the demonic Empires of the world are inspired by seven archetypal ideas in Micah's prophecy which make up The Christmas Conspiracy:
| Victory | Catholicism | Law | Peace | Family | Garden-Land | Community |
| Kingdom | Universalism | Order | Altruism | Patriarchy | Distributism | Society |
| Presence | Postmillennialism | Torah | Harmony | Decentralization | Property | Interdependence |
Clicking on any of these archetypes will begin a chain of links which flesh out each theme, showing the Vine & Fig Tree vision for life in Christ's Kingdom.
In 100 words more or less, Micah's prophecy teaches us about:
Victory |
1. The Kingdom: Christ established it at His First Advent. We are reconciled to God, and enjoy His Presence in His Kingdom. |
Universality |
2. Catholicism: He promises that it will spread across the globe, and will be a universalistic mass movement, including all nations, all peoples, all races. |
Theonomy |
3. God's Law: This global spread of Christ's reign will be in terms of obedience to Biblical Law, which is Christ's Standard of Love, Justice, and Holiness. |
Pacifism |
4. Peace: Biblical Law teaches attitudes of virtue and service; when mature, these qualities beat "swords into plowshares." |
Patriarchy |
5. Family: Rightly related to those who gave
us birth. Rebellion against the natural authority of parents and elders gives rise to tyrannical, "paternalistic" institutions. The Christmas Conspiracy reverses this trend. |
Agrarianism |
6. Garden-Land: Militaristic industrialism is then replaced with contentment and a harmonious relationship with the land. |
Community |
7. Community: Christians do not practice "rugged individualism." The "nuclear family" is culturally sub-Biblical. Living in extended-family communities, Christians exercise dominion and resist the pressure of worldly peers spouting the myths of the pre-Christian "principalities and powers." |
Let us take apart Micah's prophecy theme-by-theme. We will see the overall theme of global Divine-human Reconciliation emerge.
Stated in broad propositions, Micah's prophecy teaches us about:
1. The Kingdom: Christ established it at His First Advent. |
||
| Micah says man was created in a Garden, "the
Mountain of the Lord." We rejected God's Providence because we wanted to "be as
gods" (Genesis 3:5). In our poverty, we sold ourselves to the demonic slave-traders
of the polis. Jesus paid the price necessary to "redeem" us (buy us back) from the slave-traders. Satan has been bound. By destroying this slavery, Christ established His Kingdom. If we accept His gentle yoke, we escape the harsh taskmaster of addiction to sin. Christ's plan is not to "rapture" His people, but to empower them to "overcome" sin and the demonic State. He is not "coming soon" to establish an Empire in Jerusalem. Churches preach defeat, slavery, impotence, and self-centeredness. "Shepherds" paralyze and castrate "the sheep." Liturgy and rituals replace dominion. Spontaneous obedience to the Blueprints of Life is muzzled by "doctrinal" diversions. Politicians legislate dependence and serfdom. Flag-waving replaces dominion, vengeance replaces mercy and "voting" soothes the conscience. The Media tempts us to self-worship. Meditation on God's Law is crowded out by "entertainment." Mousketeers graduate to cocaine. Yet whenever the Gospel has been believed and fleshed-out, culture has blossomed. Science, the arts, schools, hospitals, "justice, mercy and faith," are the products of Christ's Kingdom. Christ has established His Kingdom. |
||
Find out
more. |
||
| 2. Postmillennialism: It is a global Kingdom; a New Earth. |
|
||
| Jesus promises that His Kingdom will spread across
the globe, and will be global, or universalistic, including all nations, all
peoples, all races. Though the "dominant culture" only reluctantly admits it,
Christianity has already leavened the loaf, and the dough is rising. "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters
cover the sea." (Isaiah 11:9) Churches teach that everything is getting "worse and worse." Reforming lives and nations is thought to hinder the "return of Christ." Sectarianism and ecclesiocentrism is their sorry substitute for a Christianized Earth. Bureaucrats stalk the borders to keep "illegals" out. "My country right or wrong." Christ's Kingdom will grow to cover the planet. |
|||
Find out
more |
|||
3. Theonomy: Man's law will be replaced by God's Law. |
||
| This global spread of Christ's reign will be in terms
of obedience to Biblical Law, which is Christ's Standard of Love, Justice, and Holiness.
We do not adjust our interpretation of the Bible to fit our culture; we reconstruct our
culture according to the Blueprints of the Bible. Churches teach that "we are under grace, not law." They still enforce their own laws and traditions, but not God's. The rates for shoplifting, perjury, adultery, divorce, and abortion are as high in churches as among non-Christians. Governments seize billions, murder millions, destroy continents; churches are silent. Judges assert that law and justice are "culturally relative." All cultures are equal — except Christian culture, which is "oppressive." It becomes politically incorrect to condemn massive human-rights violations in so-called "left-wing" dictatorships. Biblical Law will reconstruct all human society. |
||
Find out
more |
||
4. Peace: "Swords into Plowshares." |
||
| Biblical Law teaches attitudes of virtue,
reconciliation, and service; when mature, these qualities beat "swords into
plowshares," disarming the heart of the individual and the polis. Decentralization replaces
institutionalization. Churches support wars, bless bombs, cheer executions. When institutionalized violence is approved by the pulpit, it is practiced by the people. Organized government has murdered an average of 10,000 people per day throughout the 20th century. More killings are planned. Copy-cat street gangs protect their "turf." Co-conspirators in The Christmas Conspiracy follow the Prince of Peace. |
||
Find out
more |
||
5. The Family: Home of God's global Shalom |
||
| The Family is the root and center
of Kingdom growth -- overthrowing the violence of the State, abstaining from the
sycophancy of the Church. Vine & Fig Tree
means a return to Biblical Patriarchy -- and then new growth in
terms of this family-centered paradigm. When families begin exercising independent dominion, the "shepherds" question their loyalty to the church. Inquisitions keep would-be patriarchs docile and "submissive." Leviathan is at war with Jefferson's "yeoman farmer." Free men of independent creativity and political skepticism have been replaced by consumer zombies easily managed by the State. The Christian Family will abolish the Church-State hybrid. |
||
Find out
more |
||
6. Garden-Land: Return to Eden |
||
| When families put Biblical Law into practice,
militaristic industrialism is replaced with contentment and a harmonious relationship with
the land. When Christians attempt to live debt-free, church finance boards call them "unrealistic" and "impractical." Industrialist peonage is nurtured. The Federal Reserve Board rewards debt, impersonalism, cheap, short-sighted industrialization and cut-throat competition. Ecological destruction is a result of polluted hearts. Christian Patriarchy will restore Edenic conditions world-wide. |
||
Find out
more |
||
7. Community: The Extended Family |
||
| Just as we were adopted into the Family of God,
Christians extend their families, bringing in the solitary and abandoned. Christians do
not practice "rugged individualism." The "nuclear family" is
culturally sub-Biblical. Living in extended-family communities, Christians exercise
dominion and resist the pressure of worldly peers who spout the myths of the pre-Christian
"principalities and powers." Modernist church hierarchies pressure Christians who question birth control, HMO births, mass-schooling, and Secular Humanist degrees. Christians who practice hospitality, sanctuary, and home Bible-study threaten ecclesiastical monopoly. The nuclear-armed State is no less hostile to the decentralized provision of social wholeness. The Creeds say "I believe in the Community of Saints." |
||
Find out
more |
||
For further reading:
Victory | | Catholicism | | Law | | Peace | | Family | |Garden-Land | | Community
Vine & Fig Tree
12314 Palm Dr. #107
Desert Hot Springs, CA 92240
[e-mail to V&FT]
[V&FT Home Page]