The Bible is a Textbook on Everything
When I talk with secular Christians (those who claim to be
Christians but believe in evolution, Keynesianism, Marxism, or
"liberalism"), I'm always told that I cannot trust the
Bible to give authoritative answers in whatever field we are
discussing. The evolutionist says, "The Bible is not a
textbook on geology" or biology or whatever. The Keynesian
says, "The Bible is not a textbook on economics." The
liberal says "The Bible is not a textbook on political
science." Whatever the discipline, the Bible is "not a
textbook" in that field.
The implication is clear: the Bible is only a textbook on
"religion." This is no threat to the secular
pseudo-Christian, because he has relegated "religion"
to the "upper-story" of his life, which at best
takes only one hour on Sunday morning. Religion is hermetically
sealed off from every other area of life.
In fact, for these people, the Bible is not even
a textbook on religion. Name one secular
university religion class that uses the Bible as a textbook,
that is, teaches religion as the Bible says religion
should be taught. Sure, the Bible is an "exhibit" in
most religion classes, along with Greek and Roman mythology, the
Bhagvad
Gita, and the Babylonian Epic
of Gilgamesh. But it has no more authority in the religion
class than these pagan religion texts.
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If the Bible is not a textbook
of science and economics,
it is not a textbook
of anything. |
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"If I have told
you earthly things and you do not believe, how will
you believe if I tell you heavenly things?"
John
3:12
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When the Bible is said to not be a textbook in any area of
life, then the true authority in every field is the
religion of Secular Humanism.
The issue here is not facts: not science, not history, not
economics, not politics. The issue is morality. The
secularist is saying, "Keep your morality out of my
life." What is right and what is wrong for these
secularists is determined by the scientists, or the economists,
or the politicians -- any "expert" but Moses and the
Prophets; any authority but God.
Even worse than saying the Bible is a textbook on geology is
saying that the Bible is an infallible textbook on
geology. This means that when the Bible speaks of a world-wide
flood at the time of Noah, there is no option but to accept it
and make it the foundation of all geological theories and
explanations. What makes this so offensive is not the facts that
would remain unexplained by bringing the Bible into the
classroom (for more facts are explained by the Bible than by
uniformitarianism), but by the actions in our lives that would
be scrutinized and judged by the Bible. This is what
motivated the rise of evolutionism.
| If the Bible is a
textbook for the geologist, it means he faces God's
Judgment for his political life. |
Darwin wrote of his
victory over Noah, and his joy that the Bible was no
longer a textbook on geology:
As all forms of life are the lineal
descendants of those which lived long before the
Cambrian epoch, we feel certain that the ordinary
succession by generation has never been broken, and
that no cataclysm has desolated the world. Hence we
may look with some confidence to a secure future of
great length.
No doubt his belief produced great relief.
Sir Julian Huxley articulates the secular equivalent
of "whew!":
The past of life has been steadily increased
by science until it now (1958) exceeds the staggering
figure of two and one-half billion years. And in place
of an imminent Last Judgment, Life on this planet can
now envisage at least an equal span of evolutionary
time in the future.
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| If the Bible is a
textbook for the politician, it means he faces God's
Judgment for his sexual exploitation and his perjury. |
The lines were vividly
drawn by Aldous Huxley, grandson of "Darwin's
Bulldog," Thomas H. Huxley:
I had motives for not wanting the world to
have a meaning; consequently assumed that it had none,
and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying
reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds
no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively
with a problem in pure metaphysics, he is also
concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why
he personally should not do as he wants to do, or why
his friends should not seize political power and
govern in the way that they find most advantageous to
themselves. . . . For myself, the philosophy
of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of
liberation, sexual and political."
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The Limitations of Any Textbook
To say that the Bible is a textbook on geology is not to say
that it contains every formula, every date, every molecular
structure. Consider Orlin Grabbe's textbook on International
Financial Markets. While it may discuss digital cash,
foreign currencies, "forwards," "swaps" and
interest parity, there are many subjects it does not discuss.
Does this mean it is no longer a textbook?
There are many subjects not discussed in the Bible, and many
facts not mentioned. It is, nevertheless, the Word of God, and
it governs us in every area of life, and whatever it states on
any subject of life, it is our infallible authority. What makes
this proposition so offensive is that the Bible addresses every
area of our lives. God claims
jurisdiction over every action, every thought.
Consider the Table of Contents from Rushdoony's Institutes
of Biblical Law. Under the pattern of the Decalogue (The Ten
Commandments), Rushdoony surveys all the case laws,
prophetic utterances, and the commands of the Lord and His
Apostles. Decades of study are evident in hundreds of footnotes
to "secular" sources, to which Biblical Law is applied
in detail (over 3000 Biblical citations). It can be seen that no
area of life is not addressed by God's Law. Most evangelicals
would never think to apply the Bible's authoritative and
concrete direction to such problems as these:
- III. The Third Commandment
- 2. Swearing and Revolution
- 3. The Oath and Society
- 5. The Oath and Authority
- IV. The Fourth Commandment
- 3. The Sabbath and Work
- 5. The Sabbath and Law
- Appendix: The Economics of Sabbath keeping -- by
Gary North
- V. The Fifth Commandment
- 1. The Authority of the Family
- 3. The Economics of the Family
- 4. Education and the Family
- 5. The Family and Delinquency
- VI. The Sixth Commandment
- 2. The Death Penalty
- 5. Hybridization and Law
- 6. Abortion
- 8. Restitution or Restoration
- 9. Military Laws and Production
- 10. Taxation
- 13. Quarantine Laws
- 14. Dietary Rules
- 20. Social Inheritance: Landmarks
- VII. The Seventh Commandment
- 1. Marriage
- 5. Family Law
- 6. Marriage and Monogamy
- 7. Incest
- 9. Sex and Crime
- 11. Adultery
- 12. Divorce
- 14. Homosexuality
- 17. The Transvestite
- 18. Bestiality
- VIII. The Eighth Commandment
- 1. Dominion
- 2. Theft
- 3. Restitution and Forgiveness
- 4. Liability of the Bystander
- 5. Money and Measure
- 6. Usury
- 9. Landmarks and Land
- 10. The Virgin Birth and Property
- 11. Fraud
- 12. Eminent Domain
- 13. Labor Laws
- 15. Prison
- 18. The Rights of Strangers, Widows, and Orphans
- IX. The Ninth Commandment
- 5. Corroboration
- 6. Perjury
- 8. False Witness
- 11. Slander Within Marriage
- 13. Slander as Theft
- 16. Judges
- 17. The Responsibility of Judges and Rulers
- 18. The Court
- 19. The Procedure of the Court
- 20. The Judgment of the Court
- X. The Tenth Commandment
- 1. Covetousness
- 3. Special Privilege
- 5. The System
- XV. Notes on Law in Western Society
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It is obvious that The Institutes of Biblical Law is
no gushy, "pious" devotional reader. It is a
pathbreaking, foundational Reconstruction of Law, Politics,
Jurisprudence, and Social Morality. Every Christian Lawyer
should read the book from cover to cover (849 pages). Every
political scientist should do the same. It is not the last word,
but it is the first word in generations attempting to rigorously
apply Biblical laws to the problems of contemporary society from
a Bible-believing perspective. The importance of Rushdoony's Institutes
and of the "Theonomic"
movement in general is not in the details of their applications,
but the inescapable conclusion that the Bible provides all the
Law we need to apply to the facts of our lives.
Rushdoony and the Reconstructionists have completely
challenged the prevailing "piety" of the Protestant
and Evangelical churches. Breaking asunder the previously
impenetrable barrier between the "clergy" and the
"real world," Rushdoony shows how every
believer-priest must apply the Word of God to every area of
his life. Since its publication (1973), the Reconstructionists
have continued to apply God's Word to contemporary problems in
new areas and in new ways.
We may disagree with his applications and interpretations,
but we must begin where Rushdoony begins: with the recognition
that the Lord claims sovereignty over all the earth, and has
given us His Law in written form in the Bible. Every Christian,
in whatever capacity he exercises his gifts, must bring every
thought captive to the lordship of Christ. Lawyers are not
excepted. Nor are judges, politicians, educators, scientists,
and all others involved in "secular" matters. The
Bible is not an out-dated document for the
"religious," for "church-workers," and for
the "ordained clergy" and other ecclesiastics. God's
Law governs all men.
From John M. Frame, Apologetics to the Glory of God, p. 7 text+n.11:
The lordship of Christ is not only ultimate and unquestionable, not only above and beyond all other authorities, but also over all areas of human life. In 1 Corinthians 10:31 we read, "Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God" (cf. Rom. 14:23; 2 Cor. 10:5; Col 3:17, 23; 2 Tim. 3:16-17). Our Lord's demand upon us is comprehensive. In all that we do, we must seek to please him. No area of human life is neutral. note: This was the insight of the great Dutch thinker Abraham Kuyper. He saw that the lordship of Christ requires radically different Christian forms of culture. Christians should be producing distinctively Christian
• art,
• science,
• philosophy,
• psychology,
• historical
and
• biblical scholarship, and
• political and
• economic systems.
And Christians should educate their children in distinctively Christian ways (note the God-saturated education urged in Deut. 6:6ff. after the challenge to love God exclusively). For many of us, such considerations mandate home schooling or Christian schools for our children, for how can we otherwise compete with up to seven hours a day of public-school secularism mandated by law? In any case, Christians may not take the easy road, uncritically following the thinking of the unbelieving world. Consider Kuyper's remark: Of all the territory in the creation, Jesus says, "It is mine."
The Bible is the foundational textbook for every area of human thought and endeavor.