A Paradigm Shift
You hear that phrase thrown around a lot these days. Everybody
wants their idea to be the next "paradigm shift."
Paradigm-shifters are now mainstream. Just as George Washington was
"the
Father of his Country," the GeorgeWashingtonCoaching
program represents a true break with the status quo, a change as
momentous as that described by Benjamin Rush, Signer
of the Declaration of Independence, upon hearing of Locke's rejection of
the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings:
Never before had I heard the authority of kings called in
question. I had been taught to consider them nearly as essential to
political order as the sun is to the order of our solar system.
Vine &
Fig Tree really is a new "paradigm," a
"Copernican revolution," a radical way of looking at politics
and society. It is one step beyond the
radical vision that motivated America's Founding Fathers. It is a
vision so old that it appears to be utterly unprecedented.
The vision of Vine
& Fig Tree gives energy and hope to those who
work for it. It inspires dedicated action.
| Lawrence Cremin writes: |
American Education: The National
Experience, 1783-1876,
NY: Harper
& Row, 1980, p. 114-15.
|
For Rush, who was present in the Congress as a
representative of Pennsylvania, the events surrounding the
creation of the Republic marked nothing less than a
turning point in the course of human history. "I
was animated constantly," he reflected in later
years, "by a belief that I was acting for the benefit
of the whole world, and of future ages, by assisting in the
formation of new means of political order and general
happiness."11
___________________
11. The Autobiography of Benjamin Rush, edited
by George W. Corner (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press, 1948), p.161. |
I am convinced that Vine
& Fig Tree will contribute to the Glory of God
and the greater happiness of mankind. It will animate future leaders and
captivate the hearts and minds of many. I know it's captivated me, and I
get enough enthusiastic e-mail from people who have discovered the Vine
& Fig Tree web pages (even though I haven't
listed them with any search engines yet) to believe that there is
something here that will resonate with a broad section of
Americans.
Dr. Rush speaks of "a
turning point," which is to speak of a turning from
something to something else. From what should we
turn? To what should we aspire?
I believe we must move
- From a world of priests and princes ruling over the
immature and irresponsible, a world which is simultaneously
"secular" and suffused with a host of pagan faiths
- To a world of self-governing families in which all
believers are priests and kings under Christ, where the knowledge of
the LORD covers the earth as the waters cover the
sea.
Many people balked at the "turning point" which the
Declaration of Independence represented. Many will balk at Vine
& Fig Tree -- it is the overthrowing of ideas
which many have believed are as essential to social order or the
Christian faith "as the sun is to the order of our solar
system." You may have already heard some of the leading lights of
the Christian Reconstruction movement denounce these ideas as heresy.
But Vine
& Fig Tree was the aspiration of many of America's
Founding Fathers, and made America "the
greatest nation on God's green earth" (Michael Medved). Read
their hopes here.
Nehemiah 2:19-20
19 But when
Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the
Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed
us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this
thing that ye do? will ye rebel against the king?
20
Then Nehemiah answered them, and said unto them, The God
of heaven, He will prosper us; therefore we His servants
will arise and build: but ye have no portion, nor right,
nor memorial, in Jerusalem. |
|
|
This proposal is the most controversial
"paradigm shift" since the "divine right of
kings" was overthrown by "the consent of the
governed." But it is a shift that will benefit the world
and extend the reign of King Jesus. It will animate great men
like Benjamin Rush to attempt great things
for God and resist great calumnies from the Sanballats and
Tobiahs of our day. |
Detractors have called this vision "patriarchy,"
"anarchy,"
and "theocracy."
In an age of sound-bites and slogans, when packaging is more important
than substance, I admit I am hard-pressed to propose a consumer-tested
label for Micah's Vine
& Fig Tree vision. Perhaps the next generation
will have to adopt the most popular label of our opponents, just as Marx
coined "capitalism" and Bloody Mary derided Calvin's
"Geneva Jigs."
In 1776 America rejected the idea of "the Divine Right of
Kings." The rejection of the idea of "the Divine Right of
Kings" was Biblically proper. Monarchy was replaced by an
experiment in "the consent of the governed." For various
reasons, that experiment must now be judged a failure. We must continue
along the lines that led to the end of the divine right of kings, reject
the thinking that created the Government-run Post Office, and establish
the divine right of the King of kings.
My goal is to set forth the basic outlines, blueprints, or
"institutes" of this new social order in a well-researched and
persuasively-stated manner that will allow people to break out of old
patterns of thought, and raise up a new generation of Christian
missionaries; missionaries in the fields of politics, economics,
sociology, law, science, etc., who will guide these disciplines to
Micah's world of Vine
& Fig Tree. |
