Lecture 4 Cultural Mandate and the Sabbath

Question 1

Three interlocking ideas from Genesis 1:26- 2:3

Answer 1

1. Cultural mandate and the Sabbath.
2. We see three interlocking ideas.
   
   1. The Biblical teaching on the image of God.
   2. The Biblical teaching on the blessing of God
   3. The Biblical teaching on the command of God.

Question 2

Interlocking Idea #1 - Image of God

Answer 2

1. Structural image or the ontological image.
2. Functional image
3. Liturgical image.
4. All of these are under the rubric of God’s covenant relations with his people.
5. In other words, man reflects the image of God in who he is, and what he does, and how he worships.
6. This image then is triangulated in a covenant or framework.

Question 3

Interlocking Idea #2 The Blessing of God

Answer 3

1. The glue between the image of God and the cultural mandate.
2. As we saw last week, God blesses his creation on the fifth Day
3. He blesses Humanity on the sixth day
4. He blesses the Sabbath on the seventh day.
5. From the very beginning of time, God bestows his goodness and his favor upon his creation, his people, and his day.
6. God bestows himself his smile. His favor, his goodness. And then as Redemptive history will show us, God will do whatever it takes to bless his people. Even if it means cursing, his only begotten son.
7. God is committed to blessing us. God is committed to our good to our dignity.

Question 4

Interlocking Idea #3 - The Command of God

Answer 4

1. This then immediately spills over into God’s explicit command.
2. He speaks to them a word of command, be fruitful, and multiply, and so on.
3. Adam and Eve receive a direct command from God.
4. Here, we discover the very first imperatives to mankind. God blessed them and said to them.
5. Part of the experience of blessing is being a recipient of God’s commands.
6. What a blessing it is to have someone speak the Word of God to us. It goes right to the heart of what it means to be human, what it means to be created in the image of God and what it means to receive God’s blessing and favor.
7. Not only does God give them a single command. He actually gives them a series of five commands or mandates
   
   1. Be fruitful
   2. multiply
   3. fill
   4. subdue
   5. have dominion

Question 5

The Cultural Mandate

Answer 5

1. These directives, these Divine directives form, the so-called cultural mandate.

1. Be fruitful
2. multiply
3. fill
4. subdue
5. have dominion

Question 6

The fundamental nature of humanity.

Answer 6

1. We are created in God’s image to be recipients of God’s blessing in order to work and to worship.
2. And in those things we are intended to enjoy God’s favor and blessing.
3. There is a functional and liturgical aspect to being image-bearers.
4. We have to talk about our metaphysical and moral constitution. How are we made?
5. Then we actually have to ask the question. Why are we made the way we are?
   
   1. And we are made for work and were made for worship.
6. That’s why Eric Liddell would say, when I run I feel God’s favor his Blessing, It’s very much kind of echoing this basic principle.

Question 7

Be fruitful and Mulitiply

Answer 7

1. Be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth.
2. These three commands, echo, God’s words to creation on the 5th day in verse 22 of chapter 1.
3. Backing up, looking at verse 20 and God said, let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures. And let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens. So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature, that moves with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds and every winged bird, according to its kind, and God saw that, it was good.
4. And then here’s the parallel text…And God blessed them saying be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let Birds multiply on the Earth.
5. Now, the parallel between the 5th and 6th day here is striking. Other living creatures, humanity, is to expand grow and develop the Earth. We too are creatures.
6. We see a parallel between the creation of humans and the creation of sea creatures and birds and Heavenly Creatures. The implication here is clear. God’s blessing increases as his creatures submit to his will.
7. In one sense, the sea and the heavenly creatures they’re to fill the sea and fill the skies. And likewise we too are to fill the earth with image bearers.
8. There is a clear difference between the commands given to the living creatures on the fifth day and Mankind on the six day. While the Divine imperative in some ways is pronounced over creation in verse 22. We see that the Divine directives are given directly to the man and the woman in verse 28, they become the direct recipients of the commands and God blesses them and says to them be fruitful, and multiply
9. There is a close personal relationship between God and Humanity, that is not necessarily reflected over the rest of creation.
10. Now, the woman are the recipients of divine instruction. God spoke directly to them and thus establishing the basis for Revelation and communication.
11. God is a God who speaks and reveals to his people and we are made in such a way to receive his command in a way that’s distinct from the rest of creation.
12. We might even say that our existence is defined by our submission, to God’s word, or human blessing is experienced in submission to God’s word. So as God brought shape to a shapeless creation and filled the empty void in his Act of Creation, humans are to contribute to God’s creation by filling and replenishing the Earth with image bearers.
13. We in some ways mimic God in creating and cultivating. It’s why we tell stories. It’s why we solve problems. It’s why we sing songs. It’s why we create, it’s why we build buildings. We do the work of creation and cultivation because we are created to be fruitful and to multiply and to fill the Earth.
14. Humans are to work and experiment and discover and explore. Adam and Eve were not created to sit idly in the garden but were meant to move out to fill the Earth and subdue it. And in doing so they bring glory to God. And in one sense, they receive his approbation and benediction.
15. So in this, we have a foundation for civilization, for society, for science, and even for culture-making.
16. It’s important to realize that ideas in some ways alone, don’t change societies and lives. Those ideas have to be embedded in communities and cultures.
17. And then through the development and cultivation of Institutions and families and societies those ideas, get embedded in societies, and lives are changed. It takes work. It takes hard, work to be fruitful and multiply and fill.
18. Obviously, some of this will change after the fall, but not the commands. Only the difficulty with which these things are done.

Question 8

Subdue and Have dominion

Answer 8

1. The next two commands here, underscore the importance of harnessing creation.
2. We are to subdue and have dominion over it. It’s in this context that reformed Christians have said that, man in the garden was to rule the Earth as God’s vice-regent; that is in God’s place, like a vice Chancellor.
3. In other words, Adam and Eve had a responsibility to exercise kingship over the domain that God had given them. They were to exercise influence over the Garden. This was a privilege only given to humans to subdue and have dominion. As God’s image-bearers, man reflected God’s character, upheld his word, executed his will, and in so doing extended his kingdom. They reflected his character by upholding his word, executing his will, and through that extended, the boundaries of his garden.
4. They were not to sit idle, but they were to, in some ways move out and extend the borders of the Garden in subduing all of the Earth in the name of the Creator, God.
5. In the ancient near Eastern context, kings were obviously considered to be images of the Gods. Through whom the gods would subdue, the Earth, or the kingdom.
6. In similar ways, the image here represents God’s presence and God’s rule as His Image bearers. In some ways, God is ruling and overruling the world that he is made. So the words subdue and have dominion convey the notion that man is to bring the rest of creation under the rule and reign of God. This is not their Kingdom. It’s God’s kingdom and they are stewarding what’s been given to them.
7. Now, the parallel text here is in Genesis, 2:15, which will come back to when we think through the Covenant of works.
8. Genesis 2:15. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden to work it and to keep it, right.
9. So again, this is the same story from the vantage point of the humans. All right. God, took the man and put him in the garden and said, you’ve got to keep eating, you’ve got to work it and keep it. In other words, they are to guard and serve the garden.
   
   1. The word work here is the word abad
   2. And keep is Shamar in Hebrew.
10. to guard and to serve as another way. These can be translated to guard and to serve the garden.
11. Now, this language is hugely important for the rest of the Old Testament story. This language is liturgical language. And from this, we can extrapolate that the garden very much represents a prototype of the Tabernacle. And in one sense, Adam and Eve are not just Kings, but they represent priests who in one sense guard, and protect the presence of God in his garden.
12. This language of abad and Shamar will later, be used for Israel in her relationship to God, and it will be used of the aaronic priests who care for the Tabernacle and Temple.
13. So what goes on in the garden, points to what goes on in the Tabernacle, which points to what goes in the temple, which points to what goes on in Jesus, which points to what goes on in glory in the presence of God. There is a straight line there from the garden to the new heavens and new earth. I’ll give you an example here.
14. Deuteronomy 10,, verses 12 and 13.
    
    1. And now, Israel, what does the Lord require of you? But to fear the lord your God to walk in all his ways to love him, to serve the Lord, your God, with all your heart. And with all your soul, (the word serve. Is this word Abad?) not only are you to serve the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul, you are to keep (Shamar) the Commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am giving you today for your good, for your well-being. here.
    2. Okay, so the commands to subdue and have dominion very much reflect submission to God’s word in an attitude of worship.
15. We see this as well in Deuteronomy 30. These words are not only apply to Israel as a nation, but they are applied to Israel’s relation to other gods. Israel is commanded to keep and guard God’s word and not to serve other gods. Deuteronomy 30 picking up in verse 15.
    
    1. “See I have set before you today life and good death and evil. If you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I command you today by loving the Lord, your God by walking in his ways by keeping (Shamar) his commands and his statutes and his rules. Then you shall live and multiply (there is an echo of the mandate.) And the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possessions of it again.
16. You should be thinking of Genesis 1 when you read Deuteronomy, 30.
17. Verse 17. but if your heart turns away and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them (Abad). False worship is liturgical, rebellion, and spiritual idolatry and harlotry. I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. … I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing…
18. Deuteronomy 30 in many ways recapitulates the covenantal standards of Genesis 1 and 2 as God’s people are going into the garden. So you should be thinking of the garden when God is preparing his people to enter into the promised land. There’s a clear parallel between the two.
19. Furthermore in Numbers 3 these two commands are applied to the duties of the Levites in Numbers 3:5-8 We read these words
20. and the Lord spoke to Moses saying, bring the tribe of Levi, near and set them before Aaron, the priest that they made minister to him. They shall keep guard. Shamar over him and over the whole congregation before the tent of meeting and they minister.
21. They Abad at the Tabernacle, they shall guard the word, there is Shamar all the Furnishings of the tent of meeting and keep guard over the people of Israel as they Minister as they Abad at the Tabernacle.
22. Why is all of this important? Well, the language of Abad and Shamar in Israel and the Tabernacle provides an echo of Eden.
23. We recognize that Genesis 2:15 continues the commission the man, the woman were given in Genesis 1 to subdue and have dominion. Man is to cultivate the Earth by upholding God’s character and protecting the garden from Evil and turmoil. We care about the Integrity of worship in the way we do that is by upholding God’s word because God’s word always regulates and governs God’s worship and our coming into his presence. So, man is to be the obedient servant entrusted with the care of God’s domain. He is to be a vice Regent
    
    1. in the words of GK Beale in his new testament biblical theology. “Adam is like a primordial priest serving and a primeval Temple.” This is a prototype of the Tabernacle and Adam is a priest taking care of God’s. Temple presence in the garden.

Question 9

After the Fall

Answer 9

1. Man, in one sense is created below God, is created to be above creation, and in some sense, man is also equal with one another as fellow image-bearers.
2. The problem is that we end up having to fulfill the mandate in the presence of sin.
3. One of the clearest ways we see, this is In the Noah account in Genesis 6 to 10.
4. So let’s very quickly. Think about Genesis 6 - 9 And the story of the establishment of the Noahic Covenant, in many ways represents a recapitulation of the creation story and the establishment of the cultural mandate.
5. In chapter 6, God shows Grace to Noah and declares that he will judge the world as a result of the pervasiveness of sin. We see this, especially in Genesis 6:17-22.
6. For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the Earth To Destroy All Flesh, in which is the Breath of Life under Heaven. Everything that is on the Earth shall die.
7. There’s a clear echo of actually Genesis 2:15
8. … but I will establish my Covenant with you and you shall come into the ark. You, your son’s, your wife, and Our sons wives with you and every living thing of All Flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female of the birds, according to their kinds of the animals, according to their kinds of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come into you to keep them alive and take with you every sort shall come into you to keep them alive. Also, take with you every sort of food that is eaten and store up and it shall serve as food for you. And for them, Noah did this. He did all that God, commanded him.
9. I want you to see at this point in the noahic story, Is that for Noah fellowship with God, was defined by God and regulated by God. God’s command governed Noah’s relationship with God and his ability to enjoy God’s world. This will become a theme, that’s repeated throughout the rest of the redemptive history story.
10. Before the fall, Adam needed God’s word.
11. And after the fall, you bet we need God’s word to do his work.
12. Noah did all that God commanded him. Fellowship with God is defined by God and regulated by God’s command.
13. You see this theme moving into chapter 7 to 8. God judges the world in the flood, but he also receives worship from Noah.
14. It’s another reminder that salvation comes through sacrifice in the face of judgement.
15. The key text here is found in Genesis 8:20 - 22.
16. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the Altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing Aroma the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again, strike down every living creature. As I have done while the Earth remains seedtime and harvest cold and heat summer and winter day and night shall not cease.
17. So what you end up having here is Noah having to deal with the presence of sin and the reality of the curse and how to extend God’s blessing and Carry Out God’s work and worship in the context of a fallen World. What you end up finding, is that throughout Genesis, and later in Exodus, you see a pattern developing in the Patriarchs, whereby God’s people, respond to God’s grace in worship usually and almost always through a form of sacrificial offering.
18. So for example, what’s the first thing that Noah does after the ark, he worships God by building an altar.
19. When God first reveals himself to Abram in Genesis 12, how does Abram respond? Well he responds by building an altar?
20. You see the same thing in Genesis 3 actually when Adam and Eve right are evicted and God gives them a cloak, to cover themselves, they respond in worship. And the first thing that happens after the fall is a division over worship at that point.
21. You see similar patterns in The Narrative of Jacob, Joseph and Moses.
22. Genesis 9. Read, especially here picking up in verse 1
23. …and God blessed, Noah, and his sons and said to them… (I’ve heard that somewhere, right?)
24. Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the Earth…
25. And then it goes on and that’s the passage we looked at with capital punishment, but then look at verse 7
26. …and you be fruitful and multiply increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it. Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, behold. I establish my covenant with you and your offspring with you. And with every living creature that is with you the birds the livestock and every beast of the Earth with you as many as come out of the ark. It is for every beast of the earth. I establish my covenant with you. That never again, shall all flesh be cut off Bby the waters of the flood and never again, shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, this is the sign of the Covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you for all future Generations. I have set my bow in the cloud and it shall be a sign of the Covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the Earth that the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that’s between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the waters shall again, become a flood to destroy all the flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it aAnd remember the Everlasting, Covenant between God and every living creature of All Flesh, that is on the earth. And God said to Noah. This is the sign of the Covenant that I’ve established between me and All Flesh. That is on the Earth.
27. So, what we see here is in chapter 9, God puts down the bow of judgment and establishes a covenant with Noah and creation. Like Adam and Eve Noah and his family are commissioned to exercise dominion over God’s creation.
28. We might say that the entire Noah narrative serves as a re-creation of sorts. And yet, the problem is, that the redemption that Noah brings about is only partial, the problem of sin still abounds, the work is frustrated in multiplying and subduing .
29. Not only are we told in chapter 8, verse 21, that the heart of every person is evil, we’re also shown in this episode in chapters 9 and following Noah’s nakedness at the end of his life. So even even the great Noah is still in need of God’s grace.
30. And yet something very important is happening with the Noahic Covenant. Even after the fall, even with the presence of sin, we have a mandate to be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth. The command that is given in Genesis 1 abides in a fallen world.
31. David Vendrunin at Westminster Seminary, California has done some really interesting and helpful work on this point. In his book Politics after Christendom, where he consolidates about 20 years of research. Vendrunin makes the argument that the Noahic Covenant is a covenant of common Grace and preserves nature. He argues that the Noahic Covenant has three basic characteristics.
32. Number one. The noahic Covenant is universal.
33. Number two. The Noahic Covenant is pervasive and preservative and
34. number three, the Nnoahic Covenant is temporary.
35. Number one. The Noahic Covenant is universal. It encompasses the whole world and leaves nothing outside of its scope. Vendruin shows that God enters this Covenant with all human beings, not only with Noah but with future generations and literally with every living creature. What you see in the Noahic Covenant is the reassertion of the cultural mandate for the well-being of all people and All Creatures. It is universal in scope.
36. Number two. The Noahic Covenant is preservative. God’s purpose here is not necessarily to provide Redemption from Evil and sin. Rather God’s purpose in Noah, in reasserting, the cultural mandate is to sustain and maintain the world after the fall, given the presence of sin. So in Noah, and the establishment of this covenant, Human Society is capable of existence in a fallen world. So despite the presence of evil God promises not to destroy the Earth, but gives a formula for the multiplication of good things. And so he will sustain the Earth through uninterrupted cycles as we saw the end of chapter 8. Indeed, He will even restrain animals from harming humans so that we can in a fallen world coexist and enjoy God’s good creation.
37. So we see the Noahic Covenant is universal, it is preservative,
38. Number three. the Nnoahic Covenant is temporary
39. Vendrunin points out that the noahic Covenant only kind of constrains and partially restrains evil, but it does not eliminate evil.
40. God promises not to flood the world again, but he only postpones judgment until the day of the Lord. In chapter 8 verse 22, it states that God only promises to maintain the natural order only while the Earth remains. It’s kind of an ominous and foreboding statement.
41. As Vendrunin says the noahic Covenant’s lease expires, when Christ returns and institutes, the final judgment by fire rather than by water.
42. So basically the Noahic Covenant is preserving Creation in a fallen World until the establishment of the new heavens and new earth. And the way that this world is preserved, is by reasserting, the cultural mandate calling humans to good work, to preserving God’s good creation through work, through subduing the Earth and bringing it under submission. That’s why Vendrunin argues that this is ultimately a common Covenant, predicated on common Grace.
43. Let me give you a slightly nuanced elaboration of this as well. Some of you have read Palmer Robertson Christ of the Covenants. Palmer Robertson makes a similar argument, but he gives 6 summary points regarding the Noahic Covenant here.
44. Number one. The Covenant with Noah emphasizes the close interrelation of the creative and Redemptive covenants. So he’s trying to show a link between what we’ll call The Covenant of Works and Covenant of Grace.
45. Number two The Covenant with Noah relates to the particularity of God’s Redemptive Grace. It is focused on Noah. So there’s a slight difference between Robertson and Vandurdin here,
46. Number 3, The Covenant with Noah relates to God’s intention to deal with families and the Covenant relationship. So another part of this is that we see that one way that God blesses Society is through the establishment of families. Marriage does exist for the flourishing of humankind, right by populating the Earth with little boys and girls.
47. Number 4 The Covenant with Noah primarily may be characterized as a covenant of preservation. There Palmer Robertson and Van Buren and are in agreement next.
48. Number 5 The Covenant with Noah, possesses a universalistic aspect again, there is agreement between the two
49. Number 6 the Seal of the Covenant, the bow with Noah does emphasize the gracious character of the Covenant. The rainbow depicts, God’s grace amidst, judgment. Many indeed have suggested the colorful rainbow indicates that God, laid aside of battle bow after the flood. The idea is that even amidst sin and even amidst judgment, good things can happen.
50. Like we talked about last week, why is it that unregenerate people can still do really incredible things. It’s because there is a order to this creation that God has established, that enables us to produce things that benefit human societies. And so I think, in the noahic Covenant, whether you want to see it as a extension of the Covenant of Grace as Palma Robertson does, or whether you want to see it as predicated on common Grace as vendRunin does,
51. either way what you’re getting is a recapitulation of Genesis 1, in order to preserve creation after the fall for the benefit of all people and all creatures. And I think in that you do have a picture for what we call the human flourishing.

Question 10

Cultural Mandate and the Great Commission

Answer 10

1. So, In reform circles, there is some debate about the relation of the cultural mandate to what we call the Great Commission in the New Covenant era.
2. So Matthew 28 ends with Jesus commissioning his disciples to go into all the world baptizing and teaching them in the name of the father, son. Holy Spirit.
3. Here are two quotes and we can play with this, just a little bit
4. Abraham kuyper in his Stone lectures on Calvinism at Princeton.
5. “One desire has been the ruling passion of my life. One high motive has acted like a spur upon my mind and soul. . . . It is this: That in spite of all worldly opposition, God’s holy ordinances shall be established again in the home, in the school and in the State for the good of the people; to carve as it were into the conscience of the nation the ordinances of the Lord, to which Bible and Creation bear witness, until the nation pays homage again to God” (Abraham Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism).
6. That my ears typically perk up. Then at that point. You don’t know Kuiper. He was prime minister of the Netherlands, a card-carrying Calvinist as prime minister of one of the great countries of Europe, and he also founded the free Amsterdam University, where you certainly have many 20th century Scholars come out of not least of which is our founder, dr. Sproul.
7. Here you have what is sometimes called a caipirinha view of cultural engagement, where you see various spheres, like the sphere of the church, the sphere of the home, the sphere of the nation and Christ is Lord over all things. And we want to bring these spheres under the submission of the lordship of Christ, so let’s redeem culture for the glory and exaltation of Christ. And that’s a wonderful Endeavor and from that you get kind of world-changing tropes in evangelicalism. We’re going to take over the world for Christ.
8. Problem is actually very difficult to take over the world. All right, it’s very, very difficult, very difficult. Like it’s a really hard thing to actually conquer worlds. And is that actually what were called to do?
9. Well, you see something a little bit different here in Michael Horton, but certainly, I think Appreciative of Kiper.
10. “Only after the fall in the garden is the gospel announced, creating a new community within the human race that will be given an additional mandate: the Great Commission. They will subdue, rule, fill, and expand, but not by creating just governments and empires of cultural achievement—for this is now common rather than holy labor—but by Word and sacrament. . . . Nowhere in the New Testament is the Great Commission fused with the cultural mandate. . . . Believers and unbelievers continue to share equally in cultural vocations, by God’s common grace. However, Christ’s kingdom of grace is advanced in the Great Commission, by God’s saving grace” (Michael Horton, Systematic Theology).
11. Here is a clear articulation of what you might call a two kingdoms ethic where you have, the kingdom of Saving Grace, that is seen in the church and that is governed by the Great Commission. And then you have the kingdom of man, which is ruled by Common Grace, which consists of Believers and And Believers alike.
12. And so common Grace leads to cultural vocations to all vocations, common to Believers and unbelievers alike.
13. And the question then kind of comes up. Is it the goal of the church to fulfill the cultural mandate?
14. And a two kingdoms person is actually going to say no. It’s our job to carry out the Great Commission through word and Sacrament Ministry. The church doesn’t engage culture. It doesn’t make culture in one sense. It actually equips those who engage culture and change culture. The church is not the Agent of Change. Christians are the Agent of Change, and so through word and Sacrament, we Pastor people and then call them to go out into their various worlds, irrespective of their calling and do good work and do really, really, really good work.
15. So slightly different perspectives. Well, one sees the cultural mandate as the ultimate real goal of Christians in society. And so, you’ll Have people talk about the church engaging culture and redeeming culture.
16. Others will say no. Let’s emphasize the spirituality of the church. The church has a spiritual mission of words, Sacrament and prayer. And then it equips Christians to go out and live under common Grace and Carry Out, common vocations for the good of creation and Society. They both get at the same thing in some ways, but the second one is in some ways, more modest when Comes to cultural contribution of Christians and it’s in some ways a little bit more subdued and it’s wet thinking about how we’re going to you know, overcome the world by the grace of God for the glory of his name.
17. If you want to know where I land on this, I’m very happy to be kind of put in the second Camp. The to Kingdom Camp. I will say though, as kind of a two kingdoms person I think we need to do more equipping individual christians to engage in cultural work after Christendom in a fallen World, to kind of used Van Buren’s Paradigm.
18. I actually think he does good work, whether you agree with everything he says it’s a good place to start and I would encourage you to pick up his book politics after Christendom.
19. I appreciate a lot of caipirinha and worldview thinking, it can be very helpful. Early in my days when I was probably your age in college. I would have been more Kyperian in my thinking. It would have been through the influence of reading Francis Schaeffer and also reading Abraham kuyper as a young man. That was hugely influential for me.
20. Yes, so when we, conflate the Cultural mandate in the Great Commission. We confuse the gospel with the implications of the Gospel. And that becomes a formula for a social gospel. So we want to say in one sense, I think it’s helpful to say, the Great Commission very much animates, the work of the church. And then as Christians live out the gospel in their ordinary lives, they live under the rule of the cultural mandate.
21. And yet the cultural mandate is not the key to redeeming a lost Society. The way you redeem people is through the means of Grace for the Fulfillment of the Great Commission. That is how you make disciples.
22. So the Great Commission is a great tool for making disciples. The Great Commission is not an effective tool for developing human societies and civilizations.
23. The cultural mandate is a better tool for that. But when we conflate the two, we inevitably Verge on Social Gospel.
24. And we want to say, yeah, that’s right.
25. But let me say this our Progressive friends are usually better at thinking about the implications of the Gospel. What does it mean to be a Christian in society. That’s a conversation we need to be having. So just because we don’t want to conflate those two things doesn’t mean we can’t think about the implications of the Gospel in our lives as Christians.
26. I don’t want all of you to be ministers or missionaries. I want you to leave here and actually go into the marketplace and do good. That’s a really important thing that we need to think more about. So while yes, when we conflate the Great Commission in the cultural mandate, it leads to Social Gospel. That doesn’t mean two kingdoms. People spirituality of church, people can’t think about the The cultural mandate for Christians. I just think it’s a bad play book for churches.
27. Crawford. Griffin has written a book on the development of reconstructionalism in the Pacific Northwest and it’s come out recently through Oxford University press. It’s a eally helpful book, but even in the best-case scenario the attempt to subdue, all the Earth in a reconstructionalist or theonimist fashion, still has barely moved the needle in Moscow, Idaho. Let’s just try to be gracious.
28. They do good work, but ultimately, it’s almost impossible to change the world and the way they conceive it is almost impossible. The problem with reconstructionalism and Theonami, is that it conflates aspects of the ceremonial and judicial laws of the Old Testament, with the moral law that’s embedded in creation and repeated, in the Mosaic code.
29. And so, I think there is some, some failure to understand the nature of the Mosaic Covenant when they try to carry out those things in a New Covenant world, but there’s some good work. And all that to say I’m not here to bash. I think they misunderstand the nature of the law and this is not a class on law-gospel issues.
30. Having said that we can still appreciate so much of what they’re trying to do.
31. Go be a good writer and don’t try to necessarily think of that as a Ministry to you know, save the World. Just think of it as a way to bless others through good writing as a Christian who lives in a fallen world. We just need good Riders, who are the very best, who get on the New York Times bestseller list, because they’re just good writers. And in one sense we can appreciate that. We don’t have to spiritualize it. God’s given us gifts, and we need to use those gifts. And I think people whether the Christian or not will recognize those gifts.
32. I’m not a post millennialist on that front. But I can appreciate some of the things they do in there. It’s a really complicated issue, but I think it’s all ultimately marred by misunderstanding of the law. And it also has an over-realized eschatology that. I don’t fully embrace.

Question 11

The Sabbath

Answer 11

1. So the problem with work in a fallen world is that we’re tempted to really believe that work is all that matters. I actually find. Two problems going on in a fallen world.
2. We either make too much or too little of work.
3. People who make too much of work become Workaholics and they idolize work and they sacrifice everything, their character and their families on the altar of success. So you strive for power without character in order to gain what you want.
4. Conversely there are people that make too little of work. And they just have a Que Sera Sera mentality and they let people run roughshod over them and they can become incredibly lazy and disengage. So they don’t care about power structures and work and they can’t push back when abused. They simply don’t care about work.
5. Well, the opening creation account puts work in context, work is never to be an end. When we make work an end, we drive people into the ground.
6. That’s why we don’t work people, 24/7 work is never an end to itself. It’s only a means to something greater.
7. When we make work an end it leads to the undoing of societies and the undoing of ourselves. We’re not made to idolize work, as important as work is. Work, is always for the purpose of worship. That God, ultimately is the one who gives.
8. Now, the term Sabbath simply means to cease or to stop. However, as we see here in the text, the term does not necessarily mean non-activity. It means cessation from one thing in replacement of another. So in Genesis 1 God on the seventh day, ceases his work of creation and the text is pretty clear in Genesis 2:3. He rests from his creative activities.
9. Now, when we think about creation, there are when we think about the Sabbath, there are at least three distinct biblical perspectives we need to keep in mind.
   
   1. Number one is the creation ordinance.
   2. Number two, is that it’s a Redemptive ordinance.
   3. number three. It’s an eschatological ordinance.

Question 12

the Sabbath is a creation ordinance

Answer 12

1. This is seen in Genesis 2: 1-3.
2. You also see it repeated in Exodus 20 and exodus 31.
3. The Sabbath is a Divine pattern. It’s a Divine institution God created in six days. And he rested on the Sabbath.
4. However, that does not mean that God stopped working. If so the work, the world that he made would have fallen apart.
5. Rather as the text indicates, he ceases from his creation laborers and enters into a Sabbath rest. Notice as well that God blesses the Sabbath day and he makes it. Holy.
6. The first thing God makes holy in the Bible is time, is a day dedicated to rest and worship and fellowship and communion with him. So God set this day apart from the ordinary Rhythm of Life in order that one day exclusively might be devoted to him.
7. Now, think about it, the first full day the man, the woman spent on the face of the Earth was on Sabbath with God on holiday with God.
8. Even if the fall had never occurred, we would still be enjoying Sabbath rest.
9. Likewise in Exodus 20 verses 8 to 11 the Sabbath is reasserted. Let me be clear. The Sabbath was not the creation of Sinai. And therefore the Sabbath is not limited to the cultic practices of the nation of Israel. The Sabbath cannot be reduced to an idiosyncrasy of the Mosaic code. Notice in Exodus 20, that Moses anchors the Sabbath in the pattern of creation. And so as a part of the Ten Commandments, the Sabbath is part of the moral law and therefore is applicable to all peoples, all cultures all times in all settings. We don’t affirm the nine Commandments but the Ten Commandments we don’t need a restipulation of it, because it’s embedded in the way in which God has ordered creation. It’s fundamental to the way he set up this world.
10. As Moses then makes clear in Exodus 31verses 12 and 18. The Sabbath is an eternal perpetual weekly sign, that reminds us that we are made to commune with the creator of Heaven and Earth. We depend on him. We don’t depend on the work of our hands. We depend on the one that created the Heaven and the Earth.
11. So, the Sabbath is a perpetual reminder. That we are made to fellowship with God who made all things. Our help is in the name of the Lord maker of heaven and Earth as the Psalms will say. It’s a weekly perpetual reminder that God is our creator. You’re not made for work. You’re made for Garland. Here’s Genesis 2 is Exodus 20 and exodus 31.

Question 13

The Sabbath is a Redemptive ordinance

Answer 13

1. Deuteronomy 5 you have the repetition of the Ten Commandments
2. Observe the sabbath day to keep it holy as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord, your God on it. You shall not do any work. You or your son or your daughter, or your male servant, nor your female servant or your aux, or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your Gates, that you that your male servant and your female servant May rest, as well as you.
3. and this, is where it’s different from Exodus 20.
4. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord, your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, therefore the Lord, your God, commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
5. Not only do we remember that God is Creator, but we also worship him as Redeemer.
6. The Sabbath reminds us that we were in bondage and we’ve been redeemed in covenant for worship of the Triune God.
7. The Sabbath reminds us of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s Why We Gather and we take of the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper where we Proclaim his name until he comes.
8. It’s wh,y as Christian,s we consider Sunday, the Christian Sabbath the first day of the week, the dawn of a new eschaton of a new day, that’s made possible by the resurrection.
9. This is why in the New Testament, we see a shift from the Sabbath being celebrated on Saturday to Sunday, as a reminder of the Redemption we have in Christ, indeed.
10. The Lord’s day is the Christian Sabbath. And if you’re interested, there are parallel texts in Matthew 12:8, Colossians, 2:16 and 17 Acts 20 verse 7 First Corinthians, 16 1 and 2 and Revelation, 1:10 all speak to the Sabbath principle under the lordship of Christ.
11. But not only do we look back at creation and Redemption. We also look forward, recognizing…

Question 14

It’s an eschatological ordinance

Answer 14

1. In Hebrews 3 and 4 the writer draws upon the Exodus account, upon the Canaan account in Joshua, and also the interpretation of those events in Psalm 95, calling us to repent and not harden our hearts as we anticipate entering into God’s final rest.
2. The new Heaven and new earth. So there is still a Sabbath to come. When we will finally rest from the World, the Flesh. And the devil. We will enjoy a place, whose builder and maker is God where there is no sin, no suffering, no death, no trauma, no hurt, no pain.
3. And so the rest and worship, we enjoy every Lord’s day, then becomes a foretaste of that, which is to come. And the Sabbath day for New Covenant Christians represents an outpost of Glory.
4. It’s a suburb of Heaven. Where we look forward to seeing the Savior by sight.
5. So, the Sabbath principle goes to the heart of what it means to be human, because we’re made for something more than work. We’re made for the worship of the Triune God.
6. Every Lord’s day we’re reminded there’s something more important than RBC. There’s something more important than your careers. There’s something more important than your crisis, or your family. That you are made for God, and in your crisis, in your turmoil in his mercy sustained you and one day will wipe away every tear from your eyes.
7. Every Lord’s day, we get that reminder of what we are made for.