“And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets.” – Zechariah 8:5

” These men of old, these prophets, how they toiled and strove, how they entered into every department of human life with their messages and their fire, and inspiration, and daring and suffering and blood. What matters it if they never saw the city, if they saw it from afar? They set their faces toward it and died in faith, not having received the promises, and yet the promises would be much longer postponed if they had not so suffered and toiled, and had not to striven.” – G. Campbell Morgan

I stumbled across a gem of a sermon from G. Campbell Morgan as I was doing some work on other things this morning, looking through some dusty volumes of his sermons, and had to share. The sermon is called The Children’s Playground in the City of God and presents a wonderful picture of the City of God from Zechariah 8:5 and how and why Christians should strive to bring it about in our own contexts.

Morgan asks, “what would the city look like where boys and girls could play freely together in the streets?” In the City of God, the playground is the streets. In this city, the children play, and Morgan suggests that true play leads to Godly work. The kind of work that is full of passion and laughter.

He also notes that boys and girls will play together in purity and holiness, with the strength of manhood strengthening womanhood and the refinement of womanhood refining manhood. We likely just lost our feminist audience, as if there was one to begin with, but Morgan is spot on from a biblical perspective, which is what we’re concerned with.

His next point is that, in this city, there are no evil influences on the streets to pollute young life. Children are protected and evil is stifled so that is has no place, even in the dark alleys of the city. Morgan declares with biblical faithfulness and boldness foreign to the sensitive mouths of modern, effeminate preachers, “In the City of the King the dictum of Jesus will be in operation and the man who is found causing a little child to offend will have a millstone hung about his neck, and will be drowned in the depth of the sea, while angels rejoice.”

He also makes clear that, not only will the streets be fit for the children, the children will be fit for the streets. The children will be raised in God fearing, Christ exalting homes with parents who bring them up in the love and discipline of the Lord.

Finally, Morgan declares that, though the Millennial reality of this city is far off, the church is to strive to institute the City of God here now, to labor to make this vision a reality in our world. Morgan scoffs at the notion that the drug dealer and the pornographer and the gang leaders be left alone. It is the responsibility of the church to, as cited in the quote above, enter into every department of human life with the message of Jesus Christ and His Lordship over the earth.

Morgan declares that this begins by making Christ Lord of your home (where he is already Lord anyway). We are to set the Millennium up in our own home, to strive for it as a present reality. Every home dedicated to the idea of the Lordship of Jesus Christ over all areas of life is a contribution towards building God’s city. But we cannot stop there, we must press boldly on.

He concludes, “In a few years, at least the majority of us will have gone out to the great Beyond, but let us do something. Let us, at any rate, come to close grips with the devil. Let us leave the impress of our fingers somewhere on him, or else let us be ashamed to look into the face of Jesus Christ when the day breaks and the shadows flee away.

When that day breaks, will we be wearing bloody armor and the stench of sulfur, or will we be cloistered in our rooms with our little lamps, trying to keep out the darkness?

Read the Entire Sermon Here

Done? Good. Now, I haven’t read the book Green Like God, so I will not comment on it. Just the Interview. While concern about the environment for Christians is good, the purpose is not to get back to a state of Eden (where God hangs out with naked vegetarians). The purpose is for Christians to exercise Godly dominion over the earth. That means to fill the earth and multiply in it. God intended for humans to eventually be city dwellers, but this was supposed to be a process and it was not supposed to be divorced from rural, agrarian concerns. Many of our industrial problems can be traced back to Cain grasping at the city and building it on blood before it was time. God’s plan for progress was slower and more deliberate and it is displayed in the history of Israel.

God gave us animals to eat and enjoy, and there is definitely nothing more holy about being a vegetarian. When God does return, it will be to rule and dwell with us in a Holy City with a garden in the center. That doesn’t mean we are supposed to wreck the earth, just the opposite. We are to cultivate it, to beautify it. Sometimes that means conservation, other times it means cutting down forests and building roads. It definitely includes a good fillet every now and again.

I would recommend reading some James Jordan or Douglas Wilson.

This is a common error, in the modern world especially. As someone who has been deeply immersed in popular trends for doing ministry to students in the evangelical church, this is where much of the problems arise from. Students are encouraged to have otherworldly, superspiritual relationships with Christ that are ultimately detached from real life. The Incarnation and the full humanity of Christ (as outlined in the Chalcedon Definition) flies in the face of this kind of thinking. It is my hope and prayer that we can do better. We need Christians who think biblically and apply the Bible to all of life as they advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ and declare His Lordship to the ends of the earth.

Where do you see the Alexandrian, Word-flesh Christology making inroads in the modern evangelical church?

Otto Scott is, among other things, a very controversial figure in the world of historical scholarship…that being to the few people involved in “scholarship” who have actually heard of him. But what would you expect from a Christian historian who takes seriously the role of Sovereign, Triune God in the actions of men and the currents of history. It’s amazing that all factors, from political to military to economical to social are considered fair game in historical surveys and scholarly works, but religious factors, more than just ignored, are suppressed.

And there lies the value of Otto Scott. I did not understand Oliver Cromwell, the New Model Army or the English Civil War until I read Scott’s The Great Christian Revolution: How Christianity Transformed the World. For Scott, the “Great Revolution” of the English Civil War is really the events from the Reformation, the lives and ministries of Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Knox and the Reformers and how these Christian and Reformed influences changed the way people viewed church, society, culture and politics ultimately leading to the overthrow of the British Monarchy and the establishment of the British Commonwealth. Scott knows his history, is an incredibly engaging writer and sees things from a completely different perspective (thankfully) than most historians.

I recommend this book for a few reasons. First, It’s a great read. It reads like historical fiction and Scott has a sharp wit that is laced throughout the book. Second, it was extremely helpful for me to see how the Christian Worldview can be applied to the study of history with great efficiency. Finally, it gave me a much better understanding of the religious, social and political forces and attitudes of the colonists and what drove them to these distant shores and influenced our founding documents. Scott gives you a glimpse into the mind and heart of many of these founding fathers.

I’m not saying I agree with every interpretation or conclusion. Scott doesn’t use a lot of first hand documents to support his assertions (however you feel about this, it’s gonna get you criticized by historians). Sometimes he might overstate his case or dismiss other, non-religious influences. However, he is overwhelmingly convincing and builds a great foundation for other Christian Historians and worldview thinkers to build on.

“Don’t expect this kind of thing to decrease. The bullying probably won’t go away because the inward character of the bullies won’t be touched. Our culture worships the god of “education” as the savior for all ills, but the ill of the human heart is moral and spiritual. This doesn’t mean that education has no role to play. Of course it is central and the life of the mind is crucial to life in Christ. But as long as Christians don’t reject and abandon this kind of “education” then we will continue to get more of it. Truth be told, public schools exist because Christians stay in them. Our allegiance is to Jesus and his teachings on how we ought to educate our children, and that means that it must be an explicitly Christian education, where Jesus Christ is front, center, beginning and end of every subject area.”

Check out the whole post.

This book is a beautiful whirlwind of history, theology, philosophy of education and more. Buy this book because you need to read about the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes of Malta and what their victory in the siege of Malta against the Ottoman Turks can teach us today. Buy it because what other book discusses the Iliad of Homer, The importance of J. Gresham Machen, the impact of Irish Monks on civilization, the religious aspects of the War for Independence and the Civil War with such knowledge and Christian perspective?

This book did several things for me. First, it helped shape how I look at history. As a Christian with a love for history and theology, I am not blind to a theological and Christian exploration of the past, and I am conscious of Christian Worldview implications for history…but Ben House helps mold and shape that understanding like a great teacher should. The second, and perhaps the best thing this book did (and I believe the impact that House would most want), it made me buy a bunch of books. Seriously, if you don’t want to buy 10 new books and expand your Amazon wish list by 2 pages, do not read this book. House reviews books, extols such thinkers as Christopher Dawson, R.J. Rushdoony, James Jordan, Francis Schaeffer, Gary DeMar and many, many, many more.

If you are at all interested in history, theology, worldview, literature, etc…you need to get this book. It is a page turner full of stories that mold and shape the mind of the reader while teaching him how to read the inevitable stack of books he/she will purchase after reading this one.   

“I can only add that those who choose to argue in prose, even if it is very good prose, are unlikely to be receptive to a case which is most effectively couched in poetry.”

You should read the entire article.

“We live in an age of tremendous Bible ignorance. Even conservative seminaries do not teach much of the Bible; they teach everything else, but assume that the men will learn the Bible on their own. Pastors are told that laymen are stupid, and cannot be taught much of the Bible. They are told to give out “three point” sermons. This must not continue.

The goal of total Bible saturation is that our common sense is reshaped. This takes time. It probably takes a generation. Because we are estranged from the Biblical outlook, much of the Bible seems strange to us. The Bible comes to us as “formal language.” That is, it is “high language” that directly challenges our outlook on reality. We must learn it and live with it until what the Bible says becomes our common sense, what we instinctively operate with day by day.”

Great Value on Jordan’s Complete Works Here

In a recent radio program (available online), Dr. Al Mohler asks, “Should American Christians be optimistic about the future?” His conclusion is that optimism about the future, as well as pessimism, are incompatible with a Christian worldview. According to Dr. Mohler, we cannot be optimistic because we know things will only get worse in America (as indicated by recent events), but we cannot be pessimistic because we have an eschatological hope in the eventual return of Christ.

This kind of talk sounds like David resigning himself to never become King because Saul was such a wicked guy. Instead, through years of suffering, he patiently waited for what God has promised through Samuel: the crown. Do we doubt our commission? We have been delivered marching orders. Christ (a better Samuel) himself tells us, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

We, like David, have confidence, but not in our own ability to grasp authority for ourselves. We, like David, are not afraid of Saul just because he currently rules and there is no end in sight. Our confidence rests in the promises of God. Though it started relatively well, it is obvious that America is quickly becoming Saul. But where there is a Saul there is a David and the Kingdom of God is often established on the blood of the older brother.

So while we (optimistically) wait for the beast to die, our job is to make sure that we are like David (prepared to take up the mantle of authority) instead of being Ish-bosheth, the last sons of a corrupt line. We do that by being built up in the better David, Jesus Christ. We follow Paul, “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body…let the word of God dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, and with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” – Colossians 3:15-16

There they are, bellowing with their mouths with swords in their lips – for “Who,” they think, “will hear us?” But you, O Lord, laugh at them; you hold the nations in derision. O my Strength, I will watch for you, for you, O God, are my fortress. My God in his steadfast love will meet me; God will let me look in triumph on my enemies.” – Psalm 59:7-10