The death of the grown-up, pt. 6,783

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A. VIOLATION OF THE COVENANT OF CREATION

Even in Genesis 1–3 we recognize the features of a covenant that we have delineated: a historical prologue setting the stage (Ge 1–2), stipulations (2:16–17) and the sanctions (2:17b) over which Eve and the serpent argue (3:1–5) and which are finally carried out in the form of judgment (3:8–19). It is only after this fateful decision that an entirely new and unexpected basis is set forth for human destiny (3:21–24). These elements are present, albeit implicitly, in the creation narrative, with the Tree of Life as the prize awaiting the successful outcome of a trial. Just as Yahweh the Great King endured the “trial” of creation and came out at the other end pronouncing victory and entering his Sabbath enthronement, his earthly ectype-vassal was to follow the same course. Genesis 1–3, and their canonical Christian interpretation, have an eschatological rather than simply existential orientation.
As further confirmation, the presence of the Sabbath at the end of the “six-day” work-week-trial holds out the promise of everlasting confirmation in blessedness. This pattern is not the imposition of an arbitrary law, but the image-bearer’s reflection of God’s own journey from creation to consummation. If Adam should default in this covenantal relationship, he would “surely die,” and we learn from the subsequent failure of Adam that this curse brought in its wake not only spiritual but physical, interrelational, and indeed environmental disaster.
Interpreted in the light of the rest of Scripture, Adam’s covenantal role entailed that he was the representative for his whole posterity. In fact, every person is judged guilty in Adam, and the effects of this curse extend even to the rest of creation (Ge 3:17–18; Ro 8:20). It is with this simultaneously legal and relational background in mind that Paul makes his well-known statements on the imputation of Adam’s guilt and corruption as the corollary of the imputation and impartation of the Second Adam’s righteousness (esp. Ro 5) in justification and sanctification.11
The theme of covenant solidarity, otherwise regarded as congenial to relational and communal views of the self, is nevertheless put to the test when it involves collective human guilt: the tragic aspect of human solidarity and relationality. “The intersubjective matrix which forms individual, related persons,” notes Francis Watson, “also simultaneously deforms them.”12 Together we stand or fall. The legal and relational basis for this solidarity is the covenant of creation. As John Zizioulas observes,

The drive of the human being towards otherness is rooted in the divine call to Adam. The call simultaneously implies three things: relationship, freedom, and otherness, all of them being interdependent.… Through the call, Adam is constituted, therefore, as being other than God and the rest of creation. This otherness is not the result of self-affirmation; it is an otherness granted and is not self-existent, but a particularity which is a gift of the Other.13

Human identity therefore originates in being addressed: “the human being is singled out, not merely as a species, but as a particular partner in a relationship, as a respondent to a call.”14 It is precisely this call that humanity, in Adam, refuses, because we wish to be the speaker, not the addressee, in the covenant.
Contrary to the assumptions of Rudolf Bultmann, Ernst Käsemann, and others, Paul’s polemic against the law and works of the law is not an abstract opposition. Humanity was created for love, which means for law, since law simply stipulates loving actions. Because of the fall, there is no longer any possibility of being justified by “works of the law.” All of humanity, including Israel, is now “in Adam,” condemned as a transgressor of the law. Thus, the covenant of creation (also called the covenant of works, law, or nature) is the legal context for God’s judgment. This original covenant of creation may be defended by appealing to non-Christian as well as Christian sources.


Michael Horton, (2011). The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way (pp. 415–416). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Aside from what he's actually saying (decipher that at your leisure) the writing itself is pure academic, shallow, juvenile narcissistic garbage. It is writing that is worthy of the post-modern essay generator you can find on the internet. It very much is not worthy of a Reformed systematic theology.

Going on in the world

Psalms 59:1-17 (KJV)
1 Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise up against me.
2 Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody men.
3 For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O LORD.
4 They run and prepare themselves without my fault: awake to help me, and behold.
5 Thou therefore, O LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah.
6 They return at evening: they make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.
7 Behold, they belch out with their mouth: swords are in their lips: for who, say they, doth hear?
8 But thou, O LORD, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the heathen in derision.
9 Because of his strength will I wait upon thee: for God is my defence.
10 The God of my mercy shall prevent me: God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies.
11 Slay them not, lest my people forget: scatter them by thy power; and bring them down, O Lord our shield.
12 For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak.
13 Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be: and let them know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth. Selah.
14 And at evening let them return; and let them make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.
15 Let them wander up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied.
16 But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble.
17 Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing: for God is my defence, and the God of my mercy.

An Address to Christian Warriors

Soldiers of Christ, be aware that you are highly advanced in God’s creation, that you occupy an important station, that you have an arduous work allotted to you, and that you have neither time nor talent to throw away. For you are enlisted under the banner of Christ: you have entered the armies of the Most High. You have taken the oath of allegiance to the King of Zion, and bound yourselves by an oath to fight the good fight of faith against sin, Satan, the world, and the flesh. What formidable enemies are these! You have to encounter all the powers of hell, and their name is Legion. Fight them you now must, for you have put on the armour, and taken the field to fight all the enemies of God and man.

When you survey the enemies’ camp, and see their strength, number, stratagems, and inveterate malice, and are then made to feel your own weakness and nothingness, you tremble and say, ‘How shall I go against these mighty hosts! Yet I must conquer them all, or die an eternal death.

’O soldiers of Christ, banish all your guilty fears! There is, after all, far more for you than against you. You are on the Lord’s side, and he fights for you. He is your refuge and strength, your sun and shield. He is with you in the field, to teach your hands to war, and to cover your head in the day of battle. He has promised you the victory. If God is for you, who is he that can overcome you and put you to death, when you are hidden in the Lord’s pavilion, and surrounded with the wall of salvation?

While in the heat of the battle, be filled with the hope of victory, and feel assured that you shall finally obtain a complete and glorious conquest over all that come against you; for has not the Captain of your salvation engaged to subdue Satan and all his armies under your feet? Trust him and take courage then. You cannot meet with disappointment, “for faithful is he that promised, who also will do it”(1 Thessalonians 5:24).

With a view to strengthen your hope of victory, keep in mind that you have not an enemy, difficulty, or danger to encounter but which has been already conquered and subdued for you by the great Captain of your salvation. And the countless millions of his soldiers who are now safely in glory, singing the song of Moses and the Lamb, were once here below, wrestling with all the enemies and difficulties which you now have to encounter.

Therefore fight valiantly, and rest assured that he who carried them safe through the war will also carry you to the triumphs of the world to come. Not one of all his true soldiers was ever left to perish on the field of battle. Put on courage, Christian warriors! Fight the good fight of faith, be faithful unto death, and then your Captain will release you from the war, and give you the crown of life, which you shall forever wear in honour of your gracious Lord and Saviour.

- The Reverend THOMAS JONES Northamptonshire, 1837.

This is something you have to see in vision

Today, for centuries, there's been the myth of the Noble Savage. This myth has covered up the demonic nature of human beings the world over.

When Europeans came to the New World they encountered what they termed savages. Demons they were called too. Not just a few Indian tribes. Most all.

Read this blog post for a litany of torture committed: http://www.reclinercommentaries.com/2011/04/fate-worse-than-death.html

My point in this is to see how evil and darkness were upon the land. Not noble savages, but evil.

From the Tower of Babel to now. Depravity of fallen nature.

But we think evil is making inroads when it was here to begin with. All lands. Mitigated only by very thin lines and layers of government based on natural law which is based on God's law. Never perfect, because itself administered by fallen human beings, but obviously not rank evil like things are without it.

No, America is not the center of evil on the planet

Any theologian or just Christian, obviously liberal but also putative conservative, who doesn't have the manifestation of evil on this planet forefront in his or her mind - and just the era they've lived through the last one hundred years alone - is living in delusion and shallowness. Nothing they say is of worth. They can't see anything. Supernatural evil manifesting (Marxist, Islam being the largest) is easier to see than the Kingdom of God manifesting, and anyone who can't see it has nothing of worth to say as a Christian.

And this is not even referencing the people who call evil good and good evil.

What modernists with seminary degrees mock

"Scriptures Induce Over Whole Bible History the Form of the Two Rival Kingdoms.

There is no subject on which we may more properly remember that "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy." It is evidently the design of the Scriptures to make much of Satan and his work. From first to last, the favorite representation of the world's history is, that it is the arena for a struggle between two kingdoms—Christ's and Satan's. Christ leads the kingdom of the good, Satan that of the evil; though with different authorities and powers. The headship of Satan over his demons is implied where they are called "his angels." He is also called Prince of Devils (Eph. 2:2; Matt. 25:41, 9:34). Prince of the powers of the air, and Prince of darkness (Eph. 6:12). This pre-eminence he doubtless acquired partly by seducing them at first, and probably confirmed by his superior powers. His dominion is compacted by fear and hatred of God, and common purposes of malice. It is by their concert of action that they seem to approach so near to ubiquity in their influences. That Satan is also the tyrant and head of sinful men is equally plain. This prevalent Bible picture of the two kingdoms may be seen carried out in these particulars. (a) Satan originated sin (Gen. 3:1; Rev. 12:9, to; 20:2, 10; 1 John 3:8; John 8:44; 2 Cor. 11:3). (b) Satan remains the leader of the human and angelic hosts which he seduced into hostility, and employs them in desperate resistance to Christ and His Father. He is the " God of this world" (2 Cor. 4:4). "The Spirit that worketh in the children of this world." Eph. 2:2. Wicked men are his captives. See above, and 2 Timothy 2:26. He is "the Adversary " (Satan,) "the Accuser," (Diabolo" ) "the Destroyer," (Apolluwn ) (c) The progress of Christ to the final overthrow of this kingdom is the one great business of all time; the history of the conflict is the history of man and redemption (Gen. 3:15; John 12:31; 1 John 3:8-10; 1 Pet. 5:8; Eph. 6:11; John 8:44; Mark. 3:23-27; Rom. 16:20; Acts 26:18; Luke 10:18). The single fact that ungodly men, until the end of the world, compose Satan's kingdom, proves that he has, and will have some power or influence over their souls." - Robert Dabney, Systematic Theology

Wisdom from the 1850s

"In religion, men appear naturally fond of the difficult and the obscure; perhaps, because they there find escape from the disquieting light of clearly revealed truth." - J. L. Dagg, A Manual of Theology

Best def. of gaslighting I've come across

[an email]

I've defined gaslighting before as when no matter what you do or say people act like you're being weird. 

Here's another way of defining it I just came across:

"Mickey Kaus characterizes the approach as “gaslighting” — giving your opponent a legitimate reason to get angry, then turning around and pointing to their anger as evidence they’re unhinged, obsessed, [etc.]..."

Disingenuous bewilderment is a cousin to this behavior. 

It's often, probably usually, done unconsciously. Most people aren't calculating enough to do it consciously. It's a devil spirit thing. Often done to individuals who are rogue from the devil's kingdom. Or in the first stages of becoming so. Or obviously a lost cause hence it's done to try to destroy them. People engaged in spiritual warfare experience this. - C.

What is the apex experience for humankind?

The world says: ejaculation is the apex experience.

The churchian says: raising a family is the apex experience.

The Christian says: salvation is the apex experience.

The Four Prime Things

Thomas Brooks (1608–1680) said,

1. “Christ,

2. the Scripture,

3. your own hearts, and

4. Satan’s devices,

are the four prime things that should be first and most studied and searched.”