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"The Mountain of the House of the LORD
Will be established as the chief of the mountains,
And each of them shall sit under his
Vine and under his fig tree
With no one to make them afraid."
Micah 4:1,4
Having looked at the characteristics of the Garden and seen how they are to be re-created on the Earth, let us now look at the characteristics of the Nature and Purpose of Man and elaborate on the themes set forth below:
The Nature and Purpose of Man in the Garden of Eden included the following.
- A Mandate to Exercise Dominion
- over a Fruitful Garden
- gaining Knowledge
- in Harmony with Nature
- enjoying the Freedom to Glorify God
- in a Family-centered life
- lasting many healthy years
- as Stewards over the creation
- Planted Securely on the Land.
Let's explore:
We have already looked briefly at man's purpose, which some have called "The Dominion Mandate." Man was to be over the creation, under the Lord. He was to use his creative, aesthetic, intellectual, and physical abilities — abilities which are unique to man, distinguishing him from the animals — to enhance the beauty of God's creation, and, ultimately, extend the Garden over all of Eden and the Earth. The Shorter Catechism spells it out nicely: "Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever."
Man was given a Great Commission to spread the Garden over all the Earth (Genesis 1:26-28). He was kicked out of the Garden after he rebelled against God (Gen. 3:24). In Christ, however, man's dominion has been restored (Psalm 8:5-8; Hebrews 2:6-9). The Garden-Mandate would be fulfilled by Christ (Psalm 72:8) through His people. Disobedience brings man under the dominion of nature and other men (e.g., Leviticus 26:17), but the Spirit indwells the Church so that God's People might be obedient and spread the Gospel over all the earth (Romans 8:4; Matthew 28:-18-20).
The overwhelming majority of Christians do not take seriously the mandate we have as stewards over the creation. Christians generally relegate their faith to the "private" (internal) sphere, ignoring the world around them, or, when they are involved in the public sphere (economics, agriculture, charity, etc.) they simply follow the orders of the "principalities and powers" of the dominant culture.
| There is no neutrality. Every human action must be done to the glory of God, in accord with His Word [sidebar]. This means Christians must consider the implications of the Dominion Mandate, and reclaim every area of life, every aspect of human culture, all human action — even "politics" — and place them under the Lordship of Christ and God's Commands. |
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Christianity is infected by "neo-platonism," the view that despises the material world. Christians thus infected tend to ignore political and social issues.
The God Who created the world intends to reconstruct it.
In the 20th century, the Dominion aspect of the Great Commission has been ripped from the Gospel. Christian leaders are no longer prophets, priests, and kings under Christ, they are entertainers, and Christian laymen are couch potatoes. Or, Christian leaders are pop-psychologists, and Christians are perpetual clients. The Gospel being spread around the world is not a Gospel of Dominion, Reconstruction and Edenic Salvation, but a gospel of "feel goodism." Warm fuzzies down in your heart. Or even uncontrollable laughter. Useless christians preaching a useless "gospel" have nothing to say to a world which "legally" murders 10,000 human beings every day. Fluff christians have nothing to say to arms dealers, tyrants, drug dealers, and Secular Humanists who plan to kill even more people.
And yet Christians who uphold "Dominion Theology" are said to be the ones seeking to impose tyranny over others.
Just as a man is not allowed to beat his wife, so he is not allowed to beat the creation (Proverbs 12:10).
Domination, which might be defined as "dominion with rigor," is explicitly prohibited. The Hebrew for "dominion" (radah, H7287) is also found in:
Dominion is an attribute of the Messiah:
The Messiah's dominion was pictured by Solomon:
An example of the range of human dominion which God requires of men may be seen by looking at the Table of Contents of the massive and seminal work by R. J. Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law. Under the pattern of the Decalogue, Rushdoony surveys all the case laws, prophetic utterances, and the commands of the Lord and His Apostles. Decades of study are evident in hundreds of footnotes to "secular" sources, to which Biblical Law is applied in detail (over 3000 Biblical citations). It can be seen that no area of life is not addressed by God's Law. Most evangelicals would never think to apply the Bible's authoritative and concrete direction to such problems as these:
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It is obvious that The Institutes of Biblical Law is no gushy, "pious" devotional reader. It is a pathbreaking, foundational Reconstruction of Law, Politics, Jurisprudence, and Social Morality. Every Christian Lawyer should read the book from cover to cover (849 pages). Every political scientist should do the same. It is not the last word, but it is the first word in centuries attempting to rigorously apply Biblical laws to the problems of contemporary society from a Bible-believing perspective. Not the details of his application, but the inescapable conclusion that the Bible provides all the Law we need to apply to the facts of our lives -- this is the importance of Rushdoony's Institutes and of the "Theonomic" movement in general.
Watch for these links:
There is no need for a civil government to carry out the Dominion Mandate.
= shepherding [kittel]
(harmony, reconciliation,
developing Image of God,
community[25]
[failure to experience wholistic salvation brings
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(25) In the Garden there was no need for reconciliation; man could begin to develop in terms of harmony. Now, healing must precede dominion.
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