Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

APPENDIX C
The unbeliever uses stolen intellectual capital to reason
correctly – correctly in the sense of being able to use
that knowledge as a tool to subdue the earth, not in the
sense of knowing God as an adopted son knows Him.
His conclusions can correspond to external reality
sufficiently to allow him to work out his rebellious faith
to even greater destruction than if he had not had
accurate knowledge (Luke 12:47-48). He “knows”
somehow that “2 plus 2 equals 4,” and also that this fact
of mental symmetry can be used to cause desired effects
in the external realm of nature. Why this mental
symmetry should exist, and why it should bear any
relation to the external realm of nature, is
unexplainable by the knowledge of natural man, a fact
admitted by Nobel prize-winning physicist, Eugene
Wigner. 29
Christians, because they have a proper doctrine of
creation, can explain both. So the unbeliever uses
borrowed intellectual capital at every step. Christians
can use some of his work (by checking his findings
against the revelation in the Bible), and the unbeliever
can use the work of Christians. The earth will be
subdued. The closer the unbeliever’s presuppositions
are to those revealed in the Bible (such as the
conservative economist’s assumption of the fact of
economic scarcity, corresponding to Gen. 3:17-19), the
more likely that the discoveries made in terms of that
assumption will be useful. By useful, I mean useful in
the common task of all men, subduing the earth. Thus,
there can be cooperation between Christians and non-
Christians.
Conclusion
Unbelievers appear to be culturally dominant today.
Believers have retreated into antinomian pietism and
pessimism, for they have abandoned faith in the two
features of Christian social philosophy that make
progress possible: 1) the dynamic of eschatological
optimism, and 2) the tool of the dominion covenant,
biblical law. We should conclude, then, that either the
dissolution of culture is at hand (for the common grace
of the unregenerate cannot long be sustained without
leadership in the realm of culture from the regenerate),
or else the regenerate must regain sight of their lost
truths: postmillennialism and biblical law. For common
grace to continue, and for external cooperation
between believers and unbelievers to be fruitful or even
possible, Christians must call the external culture’s
guidelines back to God’s law. They must regain the
leadership they forfeited to the speculations of selfproclaimed
“reasonable” apostates. If this is not done,
then we will slide back once more, until the
unbelievers resemble the Ik and the Christians can
begin the process of cultural domination once more.
For common grace to continue to increase, it must be
sustained by special grace. Either unbelievers will be
converted, or leadership will flow back toward the
Christians. If neither happens, we will return
eventually to barbarism.
Understandably, I pray for the regeneration of the
ungodly and the rediscovery of biblical law and
accurate biblical eschatology on the part of present
Christians and future converts. Whether we will see
such a revival in our day is unknown to me. There are
reasons to believe that it can and will happen. There
are also reasons to doubt such optimism. The Lord
knows.
We must abandon antinomianism and eschatologies
that are inherently antinomian. We must call men back
to faith in the God of the whole Bible. We must affirm
that in the plan of God there will come a day of
increased self-awareness, when men will call churls
churlish and liberal men gracious (Isa. 32). This will be
a day of great external blessings – the greatest in
history. Long ages of such self-awareness unfold before
us. And at the end of time comes a generation of rebels
who know churls from liberals and strike out against
the godly. They will lose the war.
Therefore, common grace is essentially future grace.
There is an ebb and flow throughout history, but
essentially it is future grace. It must not be seen as
essentially prior or earlier grace. Only amillennialists
can hold to such a position – antinomian amillennialists
at that. The final judgment appears at the end of
time against the backdrop of common grace. The
common curse will be at its lowest point, the prelude to
special cursing of eternal duration. The final judgment
comes, just as the great flood came, against a
background of God’s external benefits to mankind in
general. The iniquity of the Amorites will at last be full.
Does the postmillennialist believe that there will be
faith in general on the earth when Christ appears? Not
if he understands the implications of the doctrine of
common grace. Does he expect the whole earth to be
destroyed by the unbelieving rebels before Christ
strikes them dead – doubly dead? No. The judgment
comes before they can do their work. Common grace is
extended to allow unbelievers to fill up their cup of
wrath. They are vessels of wrath. Therefore, the
fulfilling of the terms of the dominion covenant
through common grace is the final step in the process of
filling up these vessels of wrath. The vessels of grace,
believers, will also be filled. Everything is full. Will God
destroy His preliminary down payment on the New
Heavens and the New Earth? Will God erase the sign
that His word has been obeyed, that the dominion
covenant has been fulfilled? Will Satan, that great
destroyer, have the joy of seeing God’s word thwarted,
his handiwork torn down by Satan’s very hordes? The
amillennialist answers yes. The postmillennialist must
deny it with all his strength.
29. Eugene Wigner, “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences,” Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics XIII (1960), PP. 1-
14. See also Vern Poythress, “A Biblical View of Mathematics,” in Gary North (cd.), Foundations of Christian Scholarship, op. cit., ch. 9. See also his essay in The
Journal of Christian Reconstruction, I (Summer 1974).
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