Chapter 1: Dominion
Updated: 1/20/20
God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in his own image. In his own image he created him. Male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful, and multiply. Fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth” (Genesis 1:26–28).
The first covenant that God established between Himself and mankind was the dominion covenant. It defines mankind in terms of men’s relation to God. I have discussed this in detail in Part I of the second edition of my book, The Covenantal Structure of Christian Economics (2019). Part I is titled “The Economic Structure of the Dominion Covenant.” Chapter 1 is “The Judicial Sovereignty of God.” I divide it into five sections that correspond to the five points of the biblical covenant: God, man, law, sanctions, and time.
A. God Owns Everything
B. God Delegates Ownership
C. God Prohibits Theft
D. God Evaluates Performance.
E. God Mandates Growth
As you will see in Part I of this book, I structure the five theology sections of each chapter in terms of these categories.
Because God has established this judicial relationship between Himself and all mankind, covenant-keepers are required to abide by it. So are covenant-breakers. But covenant-keepers, being redeemed by God’s special grace, should be more self-conscious about their obligations to God in relation to dominion than covenant-breakers are. They have access to the Bible. They should have internalized Genesis 1:26–28. They should use this passage to define themselves.
Perhaps you have not been taught this. Many Christians have not been taught it. They are more likely to have been told about what is sometimes called the Great Commission. This was announced by Jesus after His resurrection from the dead but before His bodily ascension into heaven. He told His disciples the following:
Jesus came to them and spoke to them and said, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. Baptize them into the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to obey all the things that I have commanded you. See, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18–20).
Before His resurrection, He had told them this: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you” (Matthew 6:33). He distinguished His kingdom from mammon’s. What is mammon? It is the internal goal of covenant-breakers: “more for me in history.” This is covenant-breaking humanity’s god. It is the primary manifestation of self-worship. Jesus made it clear: men cannot serve both God and mammon: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth [mammon]” (Matthew 6:24). They may think they can, but this is a mistake.
Covenant-keepers must work hard and save money to build God’s kingdom. What is this kingdom? The civilization of God. What distinguishes this kingdom from the other kingdoms of man? Primarily, the difference is based on law. The other kingdoms have a different concept of law. God’s kingdom is governed by God’s Bible-revealed laws. These laws are supposed to govern all of society. Obedience to these laws is the basis of success in this life, both for covenant-keepers and covenant-breakers. This is the implication of God’s words to Moses: “But you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand acquired all this wealth.’ But you will call to mind Yahweh your God, for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth; that he may establish his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is today” (Deuteronomy. 8:17–18). Covenantal faithfulness produces wealth and success. This fact confirms His covenant with mankind. Greater obedience yields greater wealth. Greater wealth is to be used to increase the responsibility of the recipients of God’s blessings. These blessings are supposed to create greater confidence in God and His law. They are to fund more dominion activity. This in turn produces greater wealth and success. This is a system of positive feedback: ethics and success. It is the covenantal basis of men’s fulfilment of God’s dominion covenant.
In this chapter and those that follow in Part I, I adopt the categories that I presented in Part III of the Student’s Edition: “Redemption.” These are providence, service, leasehold, entrepreneurship, and compounding.
1. Theology
God owns everything. On what judicial basis? His creation of the world. “The earth is Yahweh's, and its fullness, the world, and all who live in it. For he has founded it upon the seas and established it on the rivers” (Psalm 24:1–2). This fact raises the central economic issue of providence, which in turn is an aspect of sovereignty. The world is not random. It is coherent. It is not meaningless. It is governed by God’s purpose. The universe is personal, not impersonal. These are implications of the first chapter of Genesis.
At the heart of personalism is purpose. This distinguishes Christian theology from Darwinism’s theology. At the heart of Darwinism is cosmic purposelessness. Darwinism teaches that there was no purpose in the evolution of the cosmos until man appeared. Now there is purpose. Man supplies it. But the cosmos does not guarentee man’s claim. Some other being may replace man as the agency of purpose. “Evolution giveth, and evolution taketh away.” Also, purpose apart from power is meaningless. To enforce man’s purposes, collective man must possess power. He must be able to enforce his word. He must enforce his sovereignty. The most powerful agency humanism’s social theory is the state. This is why covenant-breaking man again and again pursues statism. His religion is the power religion whenever it is not the escape religion.
The Bible teaches a very different worldview: cosmic personalism. Cosmic personalism is manifested in God’s purpose. I begin with a crucial New Testament passage relating to God’s purpose for the creation.
May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be praised, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. God chose us in him from the beginning of the world, that we may be holy and blameless in his sight in love. God chose us beforehand for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will. Our adoption results in the praise of his glorious grace that he has freely given us in the One he loves (Ephesians 1:3–5).
This raises the fundamental issue of God’s absolutely sovereign decision to elect certain people to eternal life. Why does God do this? To answer this, we must look for biblical evidence regarding what came before the creation. Ephesians 1:3–5 is one of these passages. Another is I Peter 1:20. “Christ was chosen before the foundation of the world, but now he has been revealed to you in these last times.” (Note: the phrase “these last times” refers to Peter’s era. It does not refer uniquely to the future. This is also affirmed in Hebrews 1:2: “these last days.”) The creation looked forward to Christ. History will culminate in His comprehensive victory. “God made known to us the hidden purpose of his will, according to what pleased him, and which he demonstrated in Christ, with a view to a plan for the fullness of time, to bring all things together, all things in heaven and on earth, under one head, even Christ” (Ephesians 1:9–10).
Christ is the omega of history. But He is also the alpha. “Look! I am coming soon. My reward is with me, to pay back each one according to what he has done. I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Revelation 22:12–13). In what way is Christ the alpha? He was the Creator: “For by him all things were created, those in the heavens and those on the earth, the visible and the invisible things. Whether thrones or dominions or governments or authorities, all things were created by him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:16–17). This means that the creation from the beginning has had God-directed purposes. It is not random. This means that it has meaning. God imputes this meaning. Then we also impute meaning as God’s redeemed people. We do our best to think God’s thoughts after him. This is what it means to exercise biblical judgment.
You are part of the creation. So, your life has meaning in terms of God’s purposes. This is good news for covenant-keepers. This is good news for you. The gospel is good news for those who accept Christ’s death and resurrection on their behalf. But this good news is not limited to heaven and the afterlife. It is good news in the here and now.
This should give you confidence. God is not your enemy. You are His child, not just in the general sense of being a child of Adam. Adam’s heirs are disinherited in eternity. You are an adopted child in history and eternity. This is taught in the first chapter of John. “But to as many as received him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (v. 12). This is indeed good news.
2. Implementation
One aspect of successful entrepreneurship and innovation is confidence. You must have confidence in the sovereign, personal God of the Bible. This is supposed to give you self-confidence. You must begin with the assumption that God has called you to cooperate with other covenant-keepers to build His kingdom. You must identify your niche in this project. People do not begin new projects on the assumption that they will fail. They start them on the assumption that these projects will be successful. This optimism is one of the crucial foundations for success. But this optimism must extend beyond self-confidence. People must have faith that the world is not random. Causes have predictable effects. Equally important is confidence that the world is not inherently unfair. It is not stacked against righteousness. It is not stacked against the righteous. If people believed that the world is inherently unfair, they would tend to act unethically in order to benefit from “the way the world works.” But God’s word teaches the opposite. Righteousness produces positive sanctions in history. Righteous people are not inevitable losers in history. This outlook is basic for Christian activism. If you do not adopt it, you will find it difficult to start new projects. You will expect failure, not because most projects fail, which is the case, but because righteous projects are more likely to fail than unrighteous projects, which the Bible teaches is not the case. Such an outlook is debilitating. It produces faintheartedness.
God does not expect you to fail. He does not expect His word to fail. “So also my word will be that goes from my mouth—it will not return to me empty, but it will achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). He therefore does not want you to expect failure.
You must also believe that God’s dominion applies in history, not just to eternity. It applies in the here and now. Wherever sin has dominion, there is an opportunity for Christ’s gospel to transform this area of life. The Bible does not teach that there are areas of life that are neutral. There is no neutrality. Jesus said: “He one who is not with me is against me, and the one who does not gather with me scatters” (Matthew 12:30). Because your participation in the dominion process is part of God’s dominion covenant, it is not inevitably doomed to failure. Critics of this view have a slogan: “You don’t polish brass on a sinking ship.” But the ship is not sinking. It will be the inheritance of God’s people. This is what God wants. This is the purpose of God for His creation, as I have already explained. So, your efforts to apply to gospel’s means of restoration to your areas of personal authority and therefore responsibility are not only legitimate, God requires them. They are not optional.
1. Theology
God delegates ownership. The doctrine of dominion through service is an extension of the doctrine of stewardship. Stewardship is point two of the biblical economic covenant. It was built into creation from the beginning. It is a pre-fall category. The biblical principle of stewardship is taught clearly in three passages. The first is Genesis 1:26–28. The second is Jesus’ parable of the talents. A talent was a unit of weight used to judge the precious metal content of a coin. This parable appears in Matthew 25, which is the chapter on the final judgment. It is preceded by the parable of the ten virgins with the lamps. It is followed by the final judgment. The third is Jesus’ parable of the minas, which were small coins. It is similar to the parable of the talents. It appears In Luke 19. These two parables are parables of service. The stewards were servants of the businessman.
Genesis 1:26–28 teaches that God placed mankind over the creation. There is a hierarchy: God> mankind> creation. I have described this passage as a covenant. It was established by God’s oath. He spoke judicially on behalf of man. The two parables parallel the Genesis passage: God as the property owner, with human beings as His stewards. The main difference is in the system of rewards. The businessman gives three stewards coins to invest. Then he goes on a journey. When he returns, he demands an accounting. Each of the stewards presents the economic results of his efforts. Each steward performed differently. Each is either rewarded or punished in terms of his performance. These parables make it clear that God is the owner, and we are His stewards. He holds us responsible for the administration of His property.
These parables are what I call pocketbook parables. Jesus used parables about economics, which most listerners understood, to convey spiritual truths. The parable of the talents differs from the parable of the minas. In the parable of the talents, the rewards for profitable investing are not specified.
The servant who had received the five talents came and brought another five talents. He said, ‘Master, you gave me five talents. See, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful over a few things. I will put you in charge over many things. Enter into the joy of your master.’ The servant who had received two talents came and said, ‘Master, you gave me two talents. See, I have made two more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful over a few things. I will put you in charge over many things. Enter into the joy of your master’ (Matthew 25:20–23).In contrast, in the parable of the minas, the rewards for economic profit are political authority.
It happened when he came back again, having received the kingdom, he commanded the servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know what profit they had made by doing business. The first came before him, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made ten minas more.’ The nobleman said to him, ‘Well done, good servant. Because you were faithful in very little, you will have authority over ten cities.’ The second came, saying, ‘Your mina, lord, has made five minas.’ The nobleman said to him, ‘You take charge over five cities’ (Luke 19:15–19).The rewards in both parables are not money. In the parable of the talents, they are “many things.” In the parable of the minas, they are cities. This is why these parables, while economic in context, in fact have a much broader reference. The rewards have to do with increased authority and therefore increased responsibility. This is the essence of the dominion covenant: faithful stewardship over God’s creation in the most comprehensive sense—dominion over many things.
Jesus taught that there is a tight relationship between God’s blessings and our responsibility. He taught it by using a negative example: greater punishment for violation of greater knowledge. This cause-and-effect relationship governs stewardship.
The Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager whom his lord will set over his other servants to give them their portion of food at the right time? Blessed is that servant whom his lord finds doing that when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will set him over all his property. But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My lord delays his return,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink, and to become drunk, the lord of that servant will come in a day when he does not expect, and in an hour that he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and appoint a place for him with the unfaithful. That servant, having known his lord's will, and not having prepared or done according to his will, will be beaten with many blows. But the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating, he will be beaten with a few blows. But everyone who has been given much, from them much will be required, and the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be asked” (Luke 12:42–48).
As our blessings grow, our personal responsibility grows. “But everyone who has been given much, from them much will be required, and the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be asked” (v. 48). God gives us blessings in history, not in order to turn our lifestyles into permanent vacations, but to equip us for better service to Him.
2. Implementation
You must see your life’s work as a means of service to God. He is the Creator. You are His creation for service. This is one reason why He redeemed you. Paul taught this: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this did not come from you, it is the gift of God, not from works and so no one may boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good deeds that God planned long ago for us, so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8–10). Your life has meaning in terms of your redemption. This is true in both history and eternity. Your work has been pre-ordained by the Creator. This understanding should give you confidence that you are not wasting your time . . . unless you really are wasting your time.
This is why you need a life plan. This plan should be an extension of your life’s purpose. Your purpose must be guided by this overall purpose: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you” (Matthew 6:33). Once you understand this, verse 34 comes into play: “Therefore, do not be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Each day has enough evil of its own.”
There is an old phrase: “A bad plan is better than no plan. A bad plan can be revised.” There is another old phrase: “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Most people do not have life plans until late in life, if then. They may have mental plans for the day or for the week, but few people have written plans that are broken into time periods: weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, and five years. They do not review and evaluate their performance every few months through the year. This is why plans should be specific. So, I will be specific here. You should be able to see how you have done. This will help you to evaluate how you are doing. Your plans must always be governed by this principle: if God so wills it. James wrote:
Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this city, spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.” Who knows what will happen tomorrow, and what is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then disappears. Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.” But now you are boasting about your arrogant plans. All such boasting is evil (James 4:13–16) .
It is not easy to do this kind of planning. It forces you to evaluate your circumstances: your talents, your capital, your skills, and your opportunities. You must think specifically. These specifics are governed by your faith in the providence of God. You do not live in a random universe. You live in a personal, providential universe. Your confidence in the sovereignty of God, the authority of God and His Bible, the Bible-revealed laws of God, the wisdom of God, and the victory of God in history should govern your planning. This outlook is systematic. It rests on the doctrine of God’s covenants with man, beginning with the dominion covenant.
Ownership would mean nothing if there were no property. Private ownership means that God, as the sovereign Owner, holds people responsible for the administration of His property. This is the message of the parable of the stewards. This brings us to the issue of property.
1. Theology
God prohibits theft. Why? To defend His original right of ownership. The creation began as His property. God then delegated to Adam and Eve the responsibility of defending His property and also developing it. This began in the garden of Eden. “Yahweh God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to work it and to maintain it” (Genesis 2:15).
The third point of the biblical covenant model is ethics. It has to do with law. This law is not impersonal. It is personal. God has given laws to mankind. These laws include economic laws governing man’s dominion. They are extensions of God’s original ownership. The third point of Christian economics in the pre-fall world was private property. Adam and Eve had a moral obligation to honor God’s verbal and judicial boundary around the forbidden tree. They refused. Instead, they rebelled.
Adam and Eve were given a lease on their use of the garden. This leasehold prohibited eating from the tree. God placed a judicial boundary around the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: “No Trespassing.”
Yahweh God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to work it and to maintain it. Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “From every tree in the garden you may freely eat. But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you may not eat, for on the day that you eat from it, you will surely die” (Genesis 2:15–17).
This declaration announced a property right. Adam was required by God to honor it. So was Eve. So were their heirs. Men had legal access to everything else in the garden. They had legal access to everything outside the garden. But in the midst of the garden was a boundary. For man to violate this legal boundary was to commit theft. That tree was a covenantal marker. It was a symbol of God’s ownership of the universe, including man. But it was more than a symbol. It had legal status as exclusively the property of God. It was protected by a legal boundary: God’s words. God’s words announced the terms of the leasehold.
There was a crucial fact that God left unstated in the biblical text: they initially had legal access to the tree of life. They could have eaten from it immediately. In doing so, they would have ended the threat of death. That would have ended the covenantal status of the forbidden tree. They would have secured eternal life on God’s terms. Eating from that tree would have been an act of fellowship with God. It would have been a lawful covenantal meal. Instead, they participated in an unlawful covenantal meal (Genesis 3). That brought death into their lives and the lives of their heirs.
In the Mosaic law, there was a shared meal: priest and family (Leviticus 3:1–17; 7:11–34). This was the third meal out of five. It was a fellowship meal. It was eaten inside the temple’s boundaries. It was eaten close to God geographically. In the New Testament, there is a shared meal: the Lord’s Supper, also called Holy Communion (I Corinthians 11). It is a sacramental meal. But, immediately prior to this description, Paul warned against a forbidden sacramental meal. “But I say about the things the Gentile pagans sacrifice, that they offer these things to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons! You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot have fellowship at the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he is?” (I Corinthians 10:20–22). The fellowship meal in Genesis 3 was a fellowship covenantally with demons. In response, God placed a new legal boundary around the tree of life. But because He knew that Adam would not respect this legal boundary, any more than he had respected the one around the forbidden tree, God also made a physical barrier: a flaming sword.
Yahweh God said, “Now the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. So now he must not be allowed to reach out with his hand, take from the tree of life, eat it, and live forever.” Therefore Yahweh God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he had been taken. So God drove the man out of the garden, and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword that turned every way, in order to guard the way to the tree of life (Genesis 3:22–24).
Adam and Eve had not protected the garden from the invading serpent. They did not bring verbal and physical judgment against it. They allied themselves to it. God henceforth kept them out of the garden.
2. Implementation
They had a moral obligation to defend and develop God’s property, first in the garden and later in the world outside the garden. This remains a universal requirement for all mankind. But men often choose to rebel. They see property as belonging to the state. This is the judicial essence of socialism. They also see the state as the most powerful agency of autonomous man. As a defender of God’s property, you must see yourself as a defender of the principle of private property. You must speak in the name of God. Private property is not optional theologically. It is therefore not optional economically and socially. Private property is defended by the terms of the lease.
There are invaders of the social order who insist the state, not private owners, has the responsibility of allocating, defending, and caring for property. Theologically, this is an attempt to substitute state ownership for individual ownership. This is the essence of socialism. This is an assault on the biblical principle of private ownership. This is why Christians should train themselves to resist all such recommendations.
This book is a call to action that is based on all of the books that I have written on Christian economics, beginning with Marx’s Religion of Revolution (1968). (http://bit.ly/gnmror) An important initial step in Christian economic activism is to make a commitment to defend the biblical concept of property. This means that you must understand the basics of Christian economics. I have presented these in a systematic way in my previous books on Christian economic theory: The Covenantal Structure of Christian Economics (2nd edition, 2019), Christian Economics: Student’s Edition (2017), and Christian Economics: Teacher’s Edition (2017). Biblical activism in any field of thought or action must begin with a thorough understanding of the biblical principles involved. It is not sufficient to be an enthusiast. Christian activism must be based on more than slogans.
One of the pervasive weaknesses of activists in history has been their unwillingness to master the details of the worldview they espouse. They do not begin to test these principles in their own lives. They do not apply them in their families. They may not be members of churches. (The founders of Communism were: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in the 1830's. So was the future Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in the 1890's. But they turned against Christianity.) They want to reform society in general by means of state power. They call people to revolt politically against the status quo. They are enthusiasts. They have zeal without knowledge, either in theory or practice.
If you are to become a defender of the faith in the area of economics, you must spend time studying the Bible and what it has to say about economics. Then you must gain experience in applying these general economic principles to specific responsibilities under your authority. This is the essence of judgment. It is what wisdom requires. Then, having decided what to do, you must begin to do it. You must impose sanctions: positive and negative.
1. Theology
God evaluates performance. There will be a day of final reckoning by God. Put differently, there will be a day of final accounting. This terminology reflects accounting techniques. Christians are to live in terms of God’s future assessment of their performance. Their assessment is supposed to govern their behavior.
The entrepreneur looks to the future. He guesses about future consumer prices. He then looks at today’s array of prices. He is looking for a discrepancy between today’s prices for production goods and the prices of future consumption goods. He is looking for opportunities to buy low and sell high. Entrepreneurship is the heart of the market process.
In Christian economics, the model of this process of forecasting and individual planning begins with God in the creation week. God assessed value. We are to do the same as creatures made in His image. On five of the six days of the creation week, God evaluated His performance. The only exception was day two. He said that His work was good. At the end of day six, He saw that it was all very good.
This serves as a model for man’s work. It requires self-evaluation. Our evaluation of our work is supposed to correspond to God’s evaluation of our work. As creatures made in the image of God, we are required by God to think God’s thoughts after Him. Paul wrote: “For even though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh. For the weapons we fight with are not fleshly. Instead, they have divine power to destroy strongholds. They bring to nothing misleading arguments. We also destroy every high thing that rises up against the knowledge of God. We take every thought captive into obedience to Christ” (II Corinthians 10:3–5). How is this possible? Because we have the mind of Christ. “‘For who can know the mind of the Lord, that he can instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” (I Corinthians 2:16). God evaluates our work. We must evaluate our work. We also evaluate others’ work. This is the exercise of judgment. When I say “we,” I include you.
This process of subjective evaluation is basic to all Christian social theory. It is surely basic to Christian economic theory. Individuals impute economic value to the consumer goods and services offered for sale. This is why all economic value is subjectively imputed. It is imputed by God. It is imputed by men. Because groups are responsible to God, there is also holistic or corporate evaluation. Whole societies are under the covenantal sanctions of God, either positive or negative. Moses warned the Israelites of the conquest generation.
“But you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand acquired all this wealth.’ But you will call to mind Yahweh your God, for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth; that he may establish his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is today. It will happen that, if you will forget Yahweh your God and walk after other gods, worship them, and reverence them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish. Like the nations that Yahweh is making to perish before you, so will you perish, because you would not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God” (Deuteronomy 8:17–20).We live in a providential world. God is the supreme Evaluator. He sees what mankind does, day by day, and He evaluates it. God’s continuous evaluation serves as the cosmic foundation of all human judgment. The final judgment is the culmination of history (Matthew 25; Revelation 20:4–15). At that time God will pronounce judgment on all mankind. This will be followed by eternal sanctions: the completed new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21; 22) and the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14–15). There will be a perfect correlation between covenant-keeping and positive sanctions.
For no one can lay a foundation other than the one that has been laid, that is, Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, his work will be revealed, for the daylight will reveal it. For it will be revealed in fire. The fire will test the quality of what each one had done. If anyone's work remains, he will receive a reward; but if anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, as though escaping through fire (I Corinthians 3:11–15).
There will also be perfect correlation between covenant-breaking and negative sanctions.
Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable only to us
, or also to everyone?” The Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager whom his lord will set over his other servants to give them their portion of food at the right time? Blessed is that servant whom his lord finds doing that when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will set him over all his property. But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My lord delays his return,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink, and to become drunk, the lord of that servant will come in a day when he does not expect, and in an hour that he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and appoint a place for him with the unfaithful. That servant, having known his lord's will, and not having prepared or done according to his will, will be beaten with many blows. But the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating, he will be beaten with a few blows. But everyone who has been given much, from them much will be required, and the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be asked” (Luke 12:41–48).
History reflects this final separation between covenant-keepers and covenant-breakers. It builds toward this final separation. In the final days, covenant-breakers will revolt against covenant-keepers. This points to the progressive victory of covenant-breakers. This rebellion will not last long.
I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies. They were gathering in order to wage war with the one who rode the horse and with his army. The beast was captured and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence. With these signs he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. The rest of them were killed by the sword that came out of the mouth of the one who rode on the horse. All the birds ate their dead flesh (Revelation 19:19–21).
The defeat of Satan’s kingdom in history should not come as a surprise event to Christians. Satan’s last rebellion will be just that, a rebellion. Jesus will not return in final judgment (Revelation 20) as a way to deliver His people out of the hands of an almost victorious kingdom of Satan (Revelation 19). Paul was clear on this.
Then will be the end, when Christ will hand over the kingdom to God the Father. This is when he will abolish all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “he has put everything under his feet.” But when it says “he has put everything,” it is clear that this does not include the one who put everything in subjection to himself. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subjected to him who put all things into subjection under him, that God may be all in all (I Corinthians 15:24–28).
2. Implementation
As a covenant-keeper, you should see your efforts as building the kingdom of God in history. You should impute positive value to your successes. You should not see your efforts as part of a losing effort. If you evaluate your work’s results in terms of a view of history that culminates in the defeat of God’s kingdom, then you will not impute high value to your efforts and their results. You will impute low value. This will tempt you to hold back. You will think along these lines. “Why risk everything I have for the sake of a losing cause in history? Why master the details of my work, whether at my job or in my home or in my church? Why shouldn’t I focus on preserving what I already own?” Jesus taught against this outlook.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what does it profit a person if he gains the whole world but forfeits his life? What can a person give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels. Then he will reward every person according to what he has done” (Matthew 16:24–27).
A covenant-keeper should have a general sense of the value of his work. He has the mind of Christ. His rewards on judgment day should not be unexpected if he has disciplined himself to estimate the costs and the rewards. Jesus said that we must estimate the costs: “For which of you who desires to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost to calculate if he has what he needs to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’” (Luke 14:28–30). But we must also estimate the potential rewards.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run the race, but that only one receives the prize? So run to win the prize. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a wreath that is perishable, but we do it to receive one that is imperishable. Therefore I do not run without purpose or box by beating the air. But I subdue my body and make it a slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself may not be disqualified (I Corinthians 9:24–27).
Exercising accurate judgment is crucial to effective service. Covenant-keepers are supposed to spend their lives learning how to exercise accurate judgment as stewards of God in history. This is what the Book of Proverbs is all about. It is what Psalm 119 is all about.
You must assess whether you are ready to accept greater responsibility, and not just for your own projects, but for kingdom projects. The dominion covenant is foundational, not the other four. A confident vision of the steady extension of God’s kingdom in history must become central to your life’s work. This outlook is basic to accurate self-evaluation. You must assess your failures and successes within a covenantal context. This must begins with the context of the dominion covenant.
You must learn from experience. This is what spiritual maturity requires. You must not imitate Adam, who grabbed the robes of judgment before he was mature, and also in opposition to God’s verbally revealed law. He paid a heavy price. So have his sons, whether they are disinherited sons or heirs through adoption.
1. Theology
God mandates growth. This growth must be inter-generational. That is to say, God mandates long-term economic growth. “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply. Fill the earth, and subdue it’” (Genesis 1:27). He wants mankind to increase the creation’s economic value, as the parables of the stewards teach. He assesses economic value subjectively. He evaluates economic value in terms of His objective standards.
This process of economic development extends until the end of time. I have already cited Paul’s words on Christ’s inheritance. His words are worth repeating.
But each in his own order: Christ, who is the firstfruits, and then those who belong to Christ will be made alive at his coming. Then will be the end, when Christ will hand over the kingdom to God the Father. This is when he will abolish all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “he has put everything under his feet.” But when it says “he has put everything,” it is clear that this does not include the one who put everything in subjection to himself. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subjected to him who put all things into subjection under him, that God may be all in all (I Corinthians 15:23–28).
Paul was applying the message of Psalm 110. “Yahweh says to my master, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.’ Yahweh will hold out the scepter of your strength from Zion; rule among your enemies. Your people will follow you in holy garments of their own free will on the day of your power; from the womb of the dawn your youth will be to you like the dew” (vv. 1–3). This is a messianic psalm. It points to Christ’s rule in history. Paul saw its fulfillment in terms of this footstool imagery. “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” This victory is God’s designated inheritance for His Son. Covenant-keepers will participate in it, as Psalm 110 says.
It is a serious theological mistake to interpret Christ’s kingdom as limited to the institutional church and the Christian family. God’s designated inheritance for His Son is comprehensive. There is nothing restrictive in Paul’s words or the words of the psalmist. Paul’s phrase is clear: “all in all.” Paul’s other descriptive word is “everything.”
This inheritance is cumulative over time. It is not an overnight phenomenon. Isaiah wrote: “So the word of Yahweh will be to them command upon command, command upon command; rule upon rule, rule upon rule; here a little, there a little; so that they may go and fall backward, and be broken, ensnared, and captured” (Isaiah 28:13). This inheritance extends through compound growth. The blessings of God serve as covenantal confirmations of His covenant. “But you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand acquired all this wealth.’ But you will call to mind Yahweh your God, for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth; that he may establish his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is today” (Deuteronomy 8:17–18). Greater blessings are supposed to give confidence to God’s people. This in turn should lead them to greater obedience, which then produces greater blessings. This is a system of positive economic feedback.
This doctrine of cosmic inheritance is the foundation for the biblical concept of economic growth. Economic growth is the product of widespread obedience to God’s ethical laws and also His economic laws. These laws overwhelmingly support private property and the moral legitimacy of profit. Whenever and wherever such attitudes prevail, we find economic growth. This is because people in a group or a society are confident in what Christians recognize as the providential relation between covenant-keeping and economic success. They do not regard their success as based on a violation of God’s moral order.
2. Implementation
You should have long-term goals for your life. These goals should be structured by your assessment of your skills and opportunities. Biblically speaking, these skills and opportunities are God-given. James said: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. It comes down from the Father of lights. With him there is no changing or shadow because of turning. God chose to give us birth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of all the things that he created” (James 1:17–18). If you believe this, then your goals should be governed by this overarching command: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you” (Matthew 6:33).
You should have goals for your job: short term and long term. You should have goals for your family: short term and long term. You should have goals for your service at your church: short term and long term. You should have goals for political participation: short term and long term. Here is the rule: these plans must be integrated. There will be tradeoffs. But in order to trade off one thing against another, you must have a scale of priorities: first, second, third, etc. This list of priorities should match your scale of values: highest, high, marginal. The highest priority is building the kingdom of God. Your goals must fit this overarching priority. Whatever your skills and opportunities may be today or in the future, they should fit together in a developing program to build your share of the kingdom of God.
Making this assessment will take wise judgment. So, one of your priorities should be to improve your judgment. This begins with a careful study of biblical law.
You have commanded us to keep your instructions so that we should carefully observe them. Oh, that I would be firmly established in the observance of your statutes! Then I would not be put to shame when I think of all your commandments. I will give thanks to you with an upright heart when I learn your righteous decrees (Psalm 119:4–8).My desires are crushed by the longing to know your righteous decrees at all times. You rebuke the proud, who are cursed, who wander from your commandments. Spare me from disgrace and humiliation, for I have obeyed your covenant decrees (Psalm 119:20–22).
By conforming yourself to the Bible-revealed laws of God, you will be placing your assets at the service of God. This is part of a program of inheritance: personal, family, church, and state, and in any areas where you devote time and money.
God gives an inheritance to Christ, as Paul taught (I Corinthians 15:27). Then Christ will hand over this inheritance to God, as Paul also taught (I Corinthians 15:28). This is the inheritance model for all covenant-keepers. God gives you a portion in Christ’s inheritance as a participant in God’s kingdom. Your goal should be to return this inheritance to God, also as a participant in God’s kingdom. Your inheritance is no more autonomous than Christ’s is. This outlook should become integral to all of your goals and plans. It will make you a person of superior wisdom. This is a great gift from God. “For Wisdom is better than jewels; no treasure is equal to her” (Proverbs 8:11).
All aspects of history are structured in terms of God’s dominion covenant. It defines mankind. God uses this covenant to evaluate the successes or failures of plans made by individuals. But He also uses it to evaluate the successes or failures of institutions: families, churches and states (covenantal) and also non-covenantal (contractual) institutions such as businesses, schools, and charitable associations.
Christian activism should always begin with a correct understanding of the dominion covenant. Christian activism is a program of lifetime reform. This program of reform applies to every area of life in which sin either reigns or exercises influence. There are no zones of ethical neutrality. There are no areas of life that will not be judged on judgment day. God’s redemption through Christ is comprehensive. There are Christians who deny this. Whenever you encounter such a denial, ask the person to identify some area of life in which sin has no negative effects and therefore is in no need of reform. This usually silences the critic.
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To read the entire book, go here: https://www.garynorth.com/public/department197.cfm.