THE CHRISTIAN MAN IN RELATION TO GOD

THE CHRISTIAN MAN IN RELATION TO GOD

But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

- 1 Corinthians 11:3

The family is the oldest institution, and the source of church and state. The patriarchs were priests and kings of their households.

- Philip Schaff, church historian (1888)

I do not casually dismiss the encouraging success in recent years achieved by various Christian groups. Certainly, the exploits in broadcasting and the arts, the emergence of non-denominational, charismatic churches with a strong orientation in dominion theology, the work of Reconstructionists (such as Chalcedon), and the mushrooming of Christian schools - all testify to a spiritual awakening among millions of Americans. Political success has followed.

What is unsettling, however, is that this awakening has occurred amidst the erosion of Christian home life in America. James Dobson summed it up thusly in one of his "Focus on the Family" newsletters:

If the authorities are correct, and I pray they are not, the Christian concept of the family will soon give way to even more widespread cohabitation, uncommitted marriages, casual divorce, joint custody of children, blurred sex roles, government intrusion in the family, and child-care centers to replace the mother-child relationship. . . Personally, I don’t believe Western nations can survive such a radical departure from the value system on which they were founded.

Statistics are depressing enough. But Dobson is talking about something more serious here: the disappearance of even the concept of the Christian family from national consciousness.

I surmise that we are financing the present Christian awakening on borrowed spiritual capital. We are trying to rebuild a Christian civilization without rebuilding our family altars. We are looking to an institutional solution, rather than an organic one. The present revival is a flash-in-the-pan, a bridging between a Christian past and a future Christian remnant which will be forced to rebuild upon the ruins of this Republic.

There are many areas of dominion available to the Christian man; indeed, there are many vocations where the need is pressing for the influence of Christian men. However, in this book, I am addressing men who have made their families their careers. Now by this, I do not refer to men who work a "9-to-5" job and then come home to indulge the joys of "domestic life". That is not what is meant by making a career commitment to one’s family. I am speaking to men who see in their household the opportunity to expand God’s Kingdom in a familial way, to exercise godly dominion over their homes and through their homes, and to multiply those homes through their offspring. This is the essence of the patriarchal ministry which provides an organic source to the reconstruction of society, rather than an institutional one.

If society has gone bad, it must be because the people have gone bad. People are society. Either we must convert the bad people or create new good people to take the place of the bad people when the bad people die. The former has been tried without much success in recent decades; so may I suggest the latter. It is what I call the demographic solution. As described in The Separatist Papers (No. 5), evangelism is a remedial function in a Christian society, not a building function. Godly procreation and family nurture are the primary means of kingdom building. In America, born-again and orthodox Christians might prevail over their enemies by sheer numbers within a generation, if they were to decide to have large families and to teach their children at home. For this to happen, however, Christian men must turn their attention and affections toward home. We must begin with the fathers in Israel.

(To digress briefly, the kind of evangelism to which I refer to above is the professional kind. The Kingdom of God is built through evangelism, but it is a personal evangelism directed to one’s children and neighbors. This was the case in early Christianity when homes were the evangelistic centers in society. More on that later.)

Christian Renaissance refers to the complete rebirth of a Biblically-based civilization which has been long extinct and eclipsed by a dark period of pagan dominance. Like the 15th-Century Renaissance, which saw the rebirth of Classical culture in southern Europe, Christian Renaissance means the new beginning of a consciously Christian civilization based upon the Scriptures and the patriarchal family.

Such a Renaissance begins with the work of God upon the man. It begins with the Holy Spirit regenerating the heart and imparting the very life of Christ to the human spirit. Then, His work proceeds to open the understanding so the Bible is no longer a dead letter to him, but becomes the very Word of God, alive with vividness in the mind. When this work is done, we have the creation of a Christian man.

Adam was created out of the dust of the ground and was breathed into by God with spirit-life. He lost that through sin. It is restored in Christ.

A Christian man is a man who is remade and is being remade into the image of his Creator. His heart is motivated by God’s love and his mind is guided by God’s truth. That is the difference between a Christian man and all other men.

Most men are not Christian. They may be religious. They may even seem pious. But few men are holy. Few men are motivated by godly love and guided by Biblical truth. Most men are moved by selfishness and guided by the evil imaginations of depraved custom. They are the badly marred and rapidly fading images of God.

Not so with the Christian man. He is alive with the re-creative force of the universe. He is in covenant union with God, a man under God’s control. He is a man once wild, but now tamed by God. And having been tamed by God, which is the true meaning of meekness, he is given the right to go forth and tame the earth ("Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." - Matthew 5:5). Christian dominion and Christian civilization begin with the relationship a Christian man has with God, and in particular, with Christ.

In the Introduction, the Christian Home was identified as the foundational instrument of social reconstruction. This fact is most obvious in its evangelistic and pedagogical functions. But before pressing on to describe what it takes to create the kind of Christian Home of which I am speaking, there is the aspect of authority. The Scripture quoted at the beginning identifies the God-ordained hierarchy in society: God to Christ, Christ to every man, and man to woman. Absent is any mention of an institutional source of authority. It is personal, not official. It is familial, not institutional. We are baptized into the name of a father.

There are two kinds of authority, or better put, two aspects of authority. There is absolute authority and there is derivative authority. Absolute authority resides in God who is in Heaven. On Earth, that authority is codified in the Holy Bible. It is the only infallible and divine source of authority on Earth.

Derivative authority (or sometimes called "functional authority") is the secondary and implementive aspect of authority. It is the authority which puts God’s Word into effect. As cited above, derivative authority has been given to the Christian man.

We do not find anywhere in the Bible - both in the Old and New Testaments - an earthly institution or office which God has set up above men. Before God, all Christian men are equal. Officers of the civil function and the religious function in society are subordinate to the collective authority of Christian men.

A man’s authority, with the right to use force, is limited to the members of his own household (Exodus 20:12; Ephesians 6:1, etc.). A man has no valid power over another unless it is in a posture of self-defense or if it involves voluntary submission. This is the basis of all government outside of the home and will be discussed later.

Therefore, we come to an important conclusion: the foundation of authority in society is the Word of God as it is mediated and applied in the household of a Christian man. The institutions of society are the tertiary applications of Biblical/household law - the outgrowth of which, in their organized and cooperative forms, are churches, schools, businesses, courts, governments, professions, and so on. From the perspective of moral obligation, the family is not institutionally or governmentally subordinated to the church and state. The pastor is not the head of the man, nor is the President. Christ is.[1]

For this reason, early America was the truest expression of Christian civilization in the world: government was based upon the prior consent of the governed, with no relinquishment of "unalienable rights". American government began with the self-government of the Christian man and extended itself into other spheres of life as self-government through one’s representatives. These representatives, whether in church or state, were re-chosen by the people in a timely manner and were commissioned with delegated powers to perform certain prescribed duties outlined in "constitutions" (see The Separatist Papers, No. 8, 9 & 11).

All of these powers are derived from, but never surrendered by, the authority a Christian man has under Jesus Christ. It is the externalizing of the holiness of the Christian man into society that we call "Christian dominion". Once he can rule himself, God gives him rule in other spheres, as well.

Perhaps, the most formidable obstacle to reviving a Biblical Patriarchy is the very definition we give to the concept of masculinity. Even in ostensibly Christian circles, a faulty definition of manhood prevails.

Many men define manhood in terms of their relationship with other men. They have fallen into the humanistic trap of "measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves" (2 Corinthians 10:12). One expression of this is the "macho" image of physical and emotional prowess. You are a man if you can shoot, throw, or chew better than the next man. You are a man if you do not fear or have tender feelings. Aggression, rather than dominion, is the fruit of this definition.

But this aggression need not be physical. It can be intellectual. Some men assert their manhood by their shrewdness in business, in politics, or in their respective profession. The effect is the same. Such men become predators and the society dominated by them will become power-worshippers.

Nevertheless, this is not the most common definition of manhood. For the average man, the man of simple ambitions, masculinity is defined in comparison to the woman. In spite of unisex trends, which are calculated to destroy both masculinity and femininity, the dialectic prevails which sees the sexes as opposites, rather than compliments. Too many Christian men also fall into this trap of using the woman as a yardstick: man is what the woman is not; man does what the woman cannot, or should not, or will not. The result is a matriarchal society, which is a curse from God (Isaiah 3:12). For most women can do what most men do, and in our day, do it better. If a man, whether consciously or unconsciously, defines himself in terms of his relationship to the woman, he will become effeminate. He may be mistaken for a Christian gentleman, but he is really a eunuch.

True manhood is defined by God. A man is only a man if he is subordinate to God. One’s covenant with God determines one’s masculinity.

This fact is brought out rather graphically in the very Hebrew words used in the Bible for male and female. The physical parallels we would normally expect are absent. The word for male is zakâr, which means "to mark". But it is not the same Hebrew word for literally scrawling a mark on something, which is tivãh. It is the root zakar (spelled the same but accented differently) which is translated in our English Bible as "remember". This produces some interesting applications.

For instance, in Genesis 8:1 it says, "And God remembered (maled) Noah . . ." In Exodus 2:24, it says, "God remembered (maled) his covenant with Abraham. . ." There are scores of examples, which space does not allow here, but the conclusion is clear: the "male" is not defined in terms of physical distinctions, but in terms of a relationship with God.

In stark contrast is the Hebrew word for female, which is neqêbah and comes from the root nâqab , meaning "to puncture", a strongly sexual term (the Greek word for female is parallel and means "nipple"). Thus, the passage in Genesis 1:27 which reads, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them", would literally read: "the marked one (By whom? God) and the punctured one (By whom? Man) created he them."

The Christian man’s relationship to the woman will be discussed in the next chapter, but it is enough to say for now that while the female in the Bible is looked upon according to her sexual and procreative functions, the male is identified according to a covenantal and moral status. God marks His man and gives him a covenant. God remembers His covenant with His man and gives him the keys of dominion. Becoming a member of the Divine Council, the privilege of the Covenant Man, is the status which elevates him from the level of the beast and petty tyrant to the level slightly lower than the angels (Psalms 8). Meekness, not raw power and not raw sexuality, is the prerequisite to dominion. Stewardship and loyalty bring the gift of masculinity from God. For man does not mark himself. God does.

This does not mean that the woman has no moral and covenantal status, for she is bonded to Christ. Rather, the man is the primary agent of dominion on Earth, and the woman joins him in his calling.

We are getting closer to defining masculinity. We need an example to flesh-out this definition. And Christ is that example. We can better understand the man’s relationship to God by looking at Christ’s relationship to God. 1 Corinthians 11:3 says "that the head of Christ is God." What does this mean?

THE HOUSE OF CHRISTIAN MAN THE HOUSE OF HUMANISTIC MAN

Matthew

7:24-27

1. The Rock is the Teaching of Jesus. — The Sand is the Wisdom of Man.
2. The Foundation is the Father, providing firmness and leadership.— The sunken Foundation is a Father who giveslittle guidance and support.
3. The Stones are the Children, who make up the family— The broken Stones are Children without kinship.
4. The Mortar is the Mother, whose love and nurture hold it all together. — The crumbling Mortar is a Mother withoutpurpose.
5. The Roof is the Shelter of Christian Civilization. — The collapsed Roof is the burden of HumanisticCivilization.

The Home Renaissance Movement is a movement which believes that the renewal of Christian Civilization depends upon the rebirth of a home-based, self-help society. That is the kind of society which built the greatness of America, and that is the kind of society for which we must all commit ourselves if our people are to survive as a beacon to this, world.

First, the command structure begins with God. Although Jesus is God and is co-equal in all aspects of deity with the Father, there is a functional hierarchy in the Trinity. Christ is ethically subordinate to the Father. Thus, the Father is the source of life and law for creation, and it is administered through Christ. From Christ, it flows to the man.

Second, this subordination also brings true authority. God gives Christ dominion over everything in creation, excepting His person (1 Corinthians 15:27). Just as the body is subordinate to the head, yet also expresses the head’s will in psycho-motor actions, so also does Christ execute the Father’s will. Most notably, we see this in the work of redemption (2 Corinthians 5:18-20) and wrath (Psalms 110).

Third, Christ earns the right to rule by being tested and proving His worthiness by submitting to God’s will in every trial, even unto death (Matthew 28:18, cf. Luke 24:26). This submission is demonstrated in His continual commitment to glorify His Father in all things (John 17:4).

While there are many aspects of Christ’s relationship with the Father which are needful of study, space here allows us to focus only on the headship aspect. And that headship relationship is primarily concerned with the exercise of power. If a man has as his source of authority one of human origin, then he is serving the creature rather than the Creator. If, like Christ, a man serves God, then he is serving the Creator rather than the creature. If, like Christ, a man serves God, then He is measuring up to the humanity of Christ, which is true maleness.

Putting it another way, masculinity is having a personal, headship relationship with your Creator. This is maleness. The catch is, however, that relationship cannot occur except through Christ. Many men attempt to serve God while ignoring Christ. They are wasting their time. You cannot have a personal relationship with God without a personal, headship relationship with Christ (John 14:6). Dominion is given to Christ, who then dispenses it to His worthy followers (Acts 1:8).

Obedience is the essence of subordination. The man who is truly subordinate to Christ obeys His Word. The Word is the Bible.

A lot of men forget that the first two of the Ten Commandments, which we are to obey, are concerned with worship. Obedience and dominion begin with offering true worship to God. This is the most significant aspect of Christ’s relationship to God: His constant communion with the Father. It is not without significance that the disciples recognized their risen Lord only when He broke bread and offered thanks (Luke 24:30-31).

James Jordan has more than anyone in recent years explained the primacy of worship in the life of the Christian man. I quote him at length:

Because all men, Christian and apostate, thus constantly imitate God in their work, (They are God’s images: JWS) it cannot be in the area of works that the final distinction between the righteous and the wicked is found. Rather, it is the attitude or faith that accompanies these works that makes the difference. This requirement of right faith is set out in Genesis 2 and, and is seen in that God required an additional step in the performance by man of this sequence of actions. That additional step is the giving of thanks, a conscious act of self-submission to God, affirming that He is the One who set up the conditions for human labor, and affirming that He does all things well.

What is thanksgiving? It is a rendering of praise and an affirmation of dependence upon someone else. A person does not thank himself; thus, God did not thank Himself when He made the world. That would be absurd. When, however, I thank you for something. I am acknowledging that you have done something for me (acknowledging dependence), and expressing gratitude (not resentment).

Romans 1:21, speaking of all men and thus pointedly of Adam and Eve, says "for even though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor gave thanks".

Thus, the structure of liturgical piety and of practical piety is the same: the six-fold action (Of the Lord’s Supper: JWS). The redemptive key to both is thanksgiving in Christ.

Liturgical piety serves practical piety by (a) setting the basic pattern in the Lord’s Supper, and (b) transferring men into union with Christ, and then sending them out to transform the world after that same image.

The distinction between the Christian and the apostate thus lies at the point of thanksgiving. It is not possible to take hold of the world with the intention of sinning, and still give thanks to God for it.

The stress on thanksgiving in liturgical piety is thus key to practical or laborial piety. In the early Church, all life was thus worship, either the special worship of the rite,, or the general worship of thanksgiving in all of life (1 Thess. 5:18). This worship centered piety was the characteristic of the earliest Church.

- Christian Piety: Deformed and Reformed, Geneva Papers (September, 1985)

I quoted Jordan at length because I wanted you to see clearly that this aspect of worship is key to the spiritual rebirth of man and society. The life-giving waters of God flow from the temple (Ezekiel 47). And Christ shows us throughout the Gospel records the primacy of worship in our relationship to God (John 4:23-24). It is not my purpose here to explain in detail the nature of Christian worship in the home. I will take up that subject in a later chapter. My purpose is to show what kind of man is qualified for the kind of dominion I am talking about in this book. Such a man is one who has found his manhood, his identity, in a right relationship with God. And that relationship begins at an altar and grows to fill all areas of his life.

Footnotes:

[1] The headship of Christ as it involves the Episcopal office of the Desposyni is a part of the mysteries of the Church. It is not at all contradictory with what we are saying here. Rather, it confirms it. All Christian men require a discipling or mentoring period before they become Covenant men as members of the Divine Council.

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