Liberating Planet Earth
by Gary DeMar by Gary DeMar
Comdusion 1!55 ety’s institutions, it becomes possible for people to work out their salvation with fear and trembling without having to ask for permission from men. The Bible teaches decentralization, the division of labor, and the specialization of production (1 Corinthians 12). Thk decentralized social order is ideal for allowing people with new insights and innovations to prove the worth of their ideas to their fellow men. It produces responsible, decentralized creativity. It also produces &eat wealth for the vast majority of society’s members. Why is this decentralized social order rejected by liberation theologians? Because it rests on a Biblical view of man: “You shall not become God.n The Bible teaches rather that Christ’s perfect humanity, but never His divinity, is imputed to regenerate men by God. No man has a “spark of divinity” in him. Neither man nor his political representative the state is divine. The state cannot become God. A Biblical social order therefore removes most power from the state’s bureaucrats. It transfers power to individuals, who are striving to work out their lives on earth in fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). Satan!s Centralized Hierarchy In contrast, Satan’s social order requires political centralization, so that every detail of each person’s life can in principle be monitored by a central elite. This is Satan’s substitute for God’s omniscience and omnipotence. He cannot see everything, nor can he control everything. He is not God. Satan is a limited creature. He must therefore rely on concentrated political power to achieve his goal to become God. His hierarchy must become total, for he dares not trust men who are self-governing under God. He dares not decentralize. Those who wish to build Satan’s kingdom therefore call for compulsory socialistic programs of wealth redistribution as the means for centralizing all other kinds of political control. This satanic social philosophy is a variant of environmental determinism. Environmental determinism reduces man’s personal responsibility before God, which in turn reduces self-
156 Liberating Planet Earth government and personal liberty. It offers an excuse to evil people for their continued wrong-doing. The sinner says, in effect: “I’m not depraved; I’m deprived.” Such a view of man transfers authority to elitist scientific planners who supposedly have escaped from the impersonal determining influences of man’s environment. They alone are said to be able to reshape social institutions in order to reduce sin by creating a better environment. Understand: to have escaped from the determining environment is to have become trans-human, yet this ability to transcend the environment must be asserted in principle if the central planners are to be freed from the chains of some sort of depersonalized predestinating process. It is the old lure of Satan: “You shall be as God” (Genesis 3:5). It is a system of the divination of the elite. It is a system of bondage from the top down. Yet it is promoted by liberation theology in the name of democracy. Sovereign God, Responsible People In contrast, Christianity affirms that it is God who controls all of history, not the impersonal evolutionary forces of nature itself. It is God who regenerates men, not the state. It is not man’s impersonal god who holds each person responsible for everything he thinks, says, and does. Because man’s environment is personal and providentially sustained by God, men possess the opportunity to exercise decentralized dominion over nature, since mankind is created in the image of God. Without this image of God in man, mankind could not maintain control over very much of the environment. A person’s mind could not be assumed to correspond with his external environment. Humanists who assume that a man’s mind does possess this power, especially by means of mathematics and scientfic experimentation, cannot explain the origin of this unreasonable connection except by appealiig to either miracles or randomness — a Darwinian randomness that somehow has produced cosmic order. 1 1. Gary North, Th Dominion Covenant: G%na-is (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1982), Appendix A; “From Cosmic Purposelessness to Humanistic Sovereignty.”
- Page 112 and 113: 4 The Liberation of the State 105 p
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- Page 116 and 117: The Liberation of tk State 109 fata
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- Page 120 and 121: The Liberation of the State 113 man
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- Page 124 and 125: The Liberation of the Economy 117 p
- Page 126 and 127: Z&Liberation of the Ecomy 119 as th
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- Page 136 and 137: 10 THE INEVITABILITY OF LIBERATION
- Page 138 and 139: The Inevitability of Liberation 131
- Page 140 and 141: The Inevitability of Liberation 133
- Page 142 and 143: The Inevitability of .Lib~ation 135
- Page 144 and 145: The lneuitabili~ of Liberation 137
- Page 146 and 147: The Inevitabilip of Liberation 139
- Page 148 and 149: The Inevitabiiip of Liberation 141
- Page 150 and 151: Th Inevitabili& of Liberatwn 143
- Page 152 and 153: The lrzevitabili@ of Liberation 145
- Page 154 and 155: Z3.e Inevitability ~Liberation 147
- Page 156 and 157: CONCLUSION All things have been del
- Page 158 and 159: Conclusion 151 or our civil governm
- Page 160 and 161: Conclusion 153 And why would this p
- Page 164 and 165: Conclusion 157 A Liberating Gospel
- Page 166 and 167: Conclusion 159 10. We must preach t
- Page 168 and 169: 162 Liberating Planet Earth Moses a
- Page 170 and 171: 164 L@eratmg Planet Earth Deuterono
- Page 172 and 173: 166 Liberating Pla@ Earth 1 Corinth
- Page 174 and 175: 168 Liberating Planet Earth Marxism
- Page 176 and 177: 170 Liberating Planet Earth free ma
- Page 178 and 179: 172 Liberating Phnet Earth civil, 1
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- Page 186 and 187: 180 Liberating Planet Earth tion to
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- Page 190 and 191: 184 Lib~ating Planet Earth The Whol
- Page 192 and 193: 186 Liberating Pihet Earth God. It
- Page 194 and 195: 188 Liberating Phwt Earth tutional
- Page 196 and 197: 190 Lib~ating Planet Earth The Marx
- Page 198: I I I I I I I I i / I I I I I Jesus
Comdusion 1!55<br />
ety’s institutions, it becomes possible for people to work out their<br />
salvation with fear and trembling without having to ask for permission<br />
from men.<br />
The Bible teaches decentralization, the division of labor, and<br />
the specialization of production (1 Corinthians 12). Thk decentralized<br />
social order is ideal for allowing people with new insights<br />
and innovations to prove the worth of their ideas to their fellow<br />
men. It produces responsible, decentralized creativity. It also produces<br />
&eat wealth for the vast majority of society’s members.<br />
Why is this decentralized social order rejected by liberation<br />
theologians? Because it rests on a Biblical view of man: “You shall<br />
not become God.n The Bible teaches rather that Christ’s perfect<br />
humanity, but never His divinity, is imputed to regenerate men<br />
by God. No man has a “spark of divinity” in him. Neither man<br />
nor his political representative the state is divine. The state cannot<br />
become God. A Biblical social order therefore removes most<br />
power from the state’s bureaucrats. It transfers power to individuals,<br />
who are striving to work out their lives on earth in fear and<br />
trembling (Philippians 2:12).<br />
Satan!s Centralized Hierarchy<br />
In contrast, Satan’s social order requires political centralization,<br />
so that every detail of each person’s life can in principle<br />
be monitored by a central elite. This is Satan’s substitute for<br />
God’s omniscience and omnipotence. He cannot see everything,<br />
nor can he control everything. He is not God. Satan is a limited<br />
creature. He must therefore rely on concentrated political power<br />
to achieve his goal to become God. His hierarchy must become<br />
total, for he dares not trust men who are self-governing under<br />
God. He dares not decentralize. Those who wish to build Satan’s<br />
kingdom therefore call for compulsory socialistic programs of<br />
wealth redistribution as the means for centralizing all other kinds<br />
of political control.<br />
This satanic social philosophy is a variant of environmental<br />
determinism. Environmental determinism reduces man’s personal<br />
responsibility before God, which in turn reduces self-
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