Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

APPENDIX C
coherence that at least resembled the Christian
doctrine of providence. They cannot hold the culture
together in terms of their philosophy of chaos – Satan’s
official viewpoint – but they still can make important
discoveries. They use stolen capital, in every sense.
Christians Must Lead
When there is Christian revival and the preaching and
application of the whole counsel of God, then
Christians can once again take the position of real
leadership. The unbelievers also can make contributions
to the subduing of the earth because they will
be called back to the work of the law written in their
hearts. Common grace will increase throughout the
world. But Christians must be extremely careful to
watch for signs of ethical deviation from those who
seemingly are useful co-workers in the kingdom. There
can be cooperation for external goals – the fulfilling of
the dominion covenant which was given to all men –
but not in the realm of ethics. We must watch the
Soviets to see how not to build a society. We must
construct countermeasures to their military offenses.
We must not adopt their view of proletarian ethics,
even though their chess players or mathematicians may
show us a great deal. The law of God as revealed in the
Bible must be dominant, not the work of the law
written in the hearts of the unrighteous. The way to
cooperate is on the basis of biblical law. The law tells us
of the limitations on man. It keeps us humble before
God and dominant over nature. We shall determine
the accuracy and usefulness of the works of
unregenerate men who are exercising their God-given
talents, working out their damnation with fear and
trembling.
Strangers within the gates were given many of the
benefits of common grace – God’s response to the
conversion of the Hebrews. They received full legal
protection in Hebrew courts (Ex. 22:21; 23:9; Deut.
24:17). They were not permitted to eat special holy
foods (Ex. 29:33; Lev. 22:10), thereby sealing them off
from the religious celebrations of the temple. But they
were part of the feast of the tithe, a celebration before
the Lord (Deut. 14:22-29). Thus, they were beneficiaries
of the civil order that God established for His
people. They also could produce goods and services in
confidence that the fruits of their labor would not be
confiscated from them by a lawless civil government.
This made everyone richer, for all men in the
community could work out the terms of the dominion
covenant.
We are told that the natural man does not receive the
things of the Spirit (I Cor. 2:14-16). We are told that
God’s wisdom is seen as foolishness by the unregenerate
(I Cor. 1:18-21). We are told to beware, “lest any man
spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the
tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and
not after Christ” (Col. 2:8). There is an unbridgeable
separation philosophically between unbelievers and
believers. They begin with different starting points:
chaos vs. creation, God vs. man. Only common grace
can reduce the conflict in application between pagan and
Christian philosophy. The ethical rebellion of the
unregenerate lies beneath the surface, smoldering,
ready to flare up in wrath, but he is restrained by God
and God’s law. He needs the power that law provides.
Therefore, he assents to some of the principles of
applied biblical law and conforms himself to part of the
work of the law that is written on his heart. But on first
principles, he cannot agree. And even near the end,
when men may confess the existence of one God and
tremble at the thought, they will not submit their egos
to that God. They will fight to the death – to the
second death – to deny the claims that the God of the
Bible has over every part of their being.
Thus, there can be cooperation in the subduing of the
earth. But Christians must set forth the strategy and the
tactics. The unregenerate man will be like a paid
consultant; he will provide his talents, but the Lord will
build the culture.
Common Grace vs. Common Ground
We must not argue from common grace to common
ground. We cannot do so because with the increase of
common grace we come closer to that final rebellion in
all its satanic might. Common grace combines the
efforts of men in the subduing of the earth, but
Christians work for the glory of God openly, while the
unregenerate work (officially) for the glory of manor
the glory of Satan. They do, in fact, work to the glory
of God, for on that last day every knee shall bow to
Him (Phil. 2:10). The wealth of the wicked is laid up
for the just (Prov. 13:22). So there are no common
facts, ethically speaking.
At that final day, when their rebellion begins, all of
Satan’s host will know about the facts of God’s world,
for common grace will be at its peak. Nevertheless, they
turn their backs on God and rebel. All facts are
interpreted facts, and the interpretation, not the facts as
such – there are no “facts as such” – is what separates
the lost from the elect. Inevitably, the natural man
holds back (actively suppresses) the truth in unrighteousness
(Rom. 1:18). 27 No philosophical “proofs” of
God (other than a proof which begins by assuming the
existence of the God revealed in the Bible) are valid,
and even the assumption of the existence of the God of
the Bible is not sufficient to save a man’s soul. 28 Only
God can do that (John 6:44). There is no common
ground philosophically, only metaphysically. We are
made in God’s image by a common Creator (Acts
17:24-31). Every man knows this. We can, as men, only
remind all men of what they know. God uses that
knowledge to redeem men.
27. Murray, Romans, commenting on Romans 1:18.
28. Van Til, The Defense of the Faith (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1963), attacks the traditional Roman Catholic and Arminian proofs of God. They do
not prove the God of the Bible, he argues, only a finite god of the human mind.
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