The Meaning of Vine & Fig Tree
Vine & Fig Tree
Here is Micah's prophecy, which inspired the formation of "Vine & Fig Tree." The jumps attached to key words provide a brief overview of
the important themes present in Micah's Prophecy:
And it will come about in the last days
That the mountain of the House of the LORD
Will be established as the chief of the mountains
And it will be raised above the hills
And the peoples will stream to it.
And many nations will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD
And to the House of the God of Jacob,
That He may teach us about His ways
And that we may walk in His paths."
For from Zion will go forth the Law
Even the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
And He will judge between many peoples
And render decisions for mighty, distant nations.
Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation will not lift up sword against nation
And never again will they train for war.
And each of them will sit under his
Vine and under his fig tree,
With no one to make them afraid.
For the LORD of hosts has spoken.
Though all the peoples walk
Each in the name of his god,
As for us, we will walk
In the Name of the LORD our God
forever and ever.
In that day, saith the LORD,
will I assemble her that halteth,
and I will gather her that is driven out,
and her that I have afflicted;
And I will make her that halted a remnant,
and her that was cast far off a strong nation:
and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion
from henceforth, even for ever.
Key Concepts in Micah's Prophecy
The central issue of life is Sovereignty. Who is God? Is reality determined by what God decrees, or is reality determined by man and his institutions? If the "Catholic Worker's Paradise" is not God's plan, all of our efforts will not bring it about. If it is God's plan, we can work for it with the calm repose of faith. [Back to Micah 4.]
Millions of "Christians" believe that we are in "the last days"
of planetary history, that things are prophesied (predestined?)
in the Book of Revelation to get worse and worse, until Jesus
returns again (after a nuclear war) to rule the world for a thousand
years from a throne in Jerusalem.
This belief strips the salt
of its savor (Mt. 5:13). Why work for peace or justice if war
and "tribulation" are the keys to bringing Jesus back? Such a
belief should be "thrown out and trodden under foot by men."
Micah is talking about the "last days" of the Old Covenant. The
Apostles unmistakably and repeatedly assert that they were then
living in the "last days" of the Old Covenant.[3] What was necessary
to begin fulfilling Micah's prophecy was not a 2,000-year wait for
nuclear war and the "great tribulation," but the end of Old Covenant
blood sacrifices and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. It happened
in the "last days" of the Old Covenant and the beginning of the New. Progress is possible. [Back to Micah 4.]
The Book of Genesis states that the Garden of Eden was on a mountain,
and "the Mountain of the Lord" is a symbol for the Garden. It
is used throughout the Bible to refer to God's blessings in the
Garden, and calls us to work for the global restoration of Edenic
conditions, not to wait for a "Rapture." Vine & Fig Tree is about
a world restored to Edenic beauty and harmony. [Back to Micah 4.]
The Temple (which was a symbolic re-creation of the Garden of
Eden) was centrally-located in Jerusalem. The prophetic goal was
for true worship to be decentralized and world-wide (John 4:21,23).
Ecclesiocentrism is unBiblical: Christ's execution was the last
liturgy (Heb. 10); we are all priests in the bloodless liturgy of life-reconstruction (1 Peter 2:9) [Back to Micah 4.]
Jesus was the Messiah foretold by the Prophets. In A.D. 70 He
destroyed the temple in Jerusalem and created a New Temple in
His Body. This marks the establishment of His Kingdom. We shouldn't be
waiting for a "Second Coming." [Back to Micah 4.]
In Biblical prophecy, pagan governments are described as rival
hills or mountains, and Biblical history reveals that pagan empires
had always imitated the true Kingdom by building their own temples
and their own gardens on hills. These were places where the creation
(rather than the Creator) was worshipped, often through ritual
sexual lawlessness (rather than obedient service). "Baalism" is
the religion of the modern world. We call it "Secular Humanism."
All churches are "Baalistic." [Back to Micah 4.]
Christianity is not a strictly Anglo-Saxon religion. The Patriarch
Abraham was Semitic, but his religion was not limited to his physical
descendants. The Bible is an Oriental, not Occidental, text, but
all the different kinds of human beings will one day become Christians,
followers of the Word. Vine & Fig Tree is a universalist (or "Catholic")
perspective. [Back to Micah 4.]
God is sovereign over the hearts and minds of human beings. Micah
says people from every background will delight in God's Word from
the heart, and will move with radical dedication and fervor toward
the things of God, and away from the things of secular humanist
empires. The work of the Holy Spirit is people who are not "normal"
and lukewarm. [Back to Micah 4.]
People of different languages and cultures are often coercively
collectivized by the State into political units called "nations."
Although the Bible does not recognize the moral legitimacy of these
arbitrary political divisions,[4] it can certainly be said that
these political forces will not deter the Holy Spirit from converting
the world and bringing all people under a New Authority. [Back to Micah 4.]
"Law" (Authority) is a tremendously important concept. As human
beings created in the Image of God, the very structures of law
are impressed in the fabric of our being, and then in the fabric
of our society. But like man himself, man's law is fallen. It
must be redeemed and converted. Micah expresses the importance
of hearing God's Law and patterning our own law (behavior, social
structures) after His. Micah speaks of law as
"Ways" -- patterns which should become habits in our lives;
"Paths" -- which show us the direction in which we must move;
"Law" -- which is holistic and personalist, not like that of the
lawyers and the Pharisees who executed Jesus.
"Word" -- every Word spoken by our Creator is Law for us.
Man's law leads to death; God's Law brings salvation and life. [Back to Micah 4.]
Violation of God's Law is not only an offensive assault on the
legitimate Authority of God, illegitimate (Lawless) human authority
destroys life and the creation. The Creator will step in to stop
these abuses and instruct the humble in the Ways of Life. His
saints apply His Word to their lives and soceties. [Back to Micah 4.]
The dependence of human beings upon the land is inescapable; agriculture
unites people of all nations. God has promised to provide for
us, as with the sparrows, but Humanistic Man seeks the provisions
of life through autonomous violence, rather than obedient work.
The meek will convert instruments of death and lawless authority
into tools of productivity and service. By so doing, they will
inherit an Edenic earth. [Back to Micah 4.]
God, the Potter, commands man, the clay, not to kill. Man asserts
his own divinity by taking life. War, capital punishment, and population planning are euphemisms for murder. We think they will make us more "secure." Use of "the sword" brings the judgment of God (Matthew 26:52). [Back to Micah 4.]
Education reflects our hopes. It expresses our vision for a just
society. Or it expresses Man's aspiration to "be as god." Militarism
educates in terms of conflict, implicitly declaring that God is
not abundant in mercy and goodness, and that we must fight and
kill to obtain the necessities of life. Militaristic education
is a self-fulfilling prophecy: we are taught that existence is
meaningless unless we forcefully impose our own meaning upon it.
War is the result. We must visualize an Edenic society built upon
God's Law and train in terms of that hope. [Back to Micah 4.]
His -- Property
"Thou shalt not steal" is the foundation of peace. It establishes
property as a Godly stewardship. [Back to Micah 4.]
God
is merciful and abundant in goodness, and the earth will
pour out its fruit if we will obey God's Law, dismantle our Military-Industrial
Complex, and live lives of contentment and service. The Garden
of Vine & Fig Tree is a human archetype. But Vine & Fig Tree cannot
be legislated by Congress or Parliament. Each of us must "put
to death" the old autonomous man and be resurrected to obedience
in Christ, each day, in every
area of life. [Back to Micah 4.]
His -- Family-owned; Patriarchy
Biblical property is patriarchal
property. Modern Humanistic economics is political, granting all
property to the State -- that is, to the powerful -- and embodies
theft and violence as legitimate policy. Every form of politics
is a form of socialist dictatorship and a denial of true property. Human beings are created in families; we are patriarchal beings,
not political beings. Institutions such as "church" and State
are rebellious rejections of patriarchal responsibilities. [Back to Micah 4.]
-- National Security:
Because our allegiance is to a nation-state rather than the transnational Kingdom of God, we take up arms against our "enemies," those of rival nation-states, even though they might profess the same Christianity we do. Trillions of dollars have been spent in this century in order to kill hundreds of millions of people. Yet we still feel radically insecure.
-- Crime
Because our allegiance is to ourselves rather than to other members of the Body of Christ, we board ourselves up in our homes to keep safe from those who, like us, are loyal to no one but themselves. The U.S. Supreme Court, committed to a philosophy of human autonomy, has declared it "unconstitutional" to teach children the Ten Commandments, including commands against stealing, raping, and killing. We demand prisons, not preachers. We harvest the bitter fruit.
[Back to Micah 4.]
These Humanistic structures make it more difficult to live peacefully
and righteously. We are surrounded by propaganda which tells us
it is not "sensible," "practical," or "businesslike" to follow
Jesus. We must not be "radical," "idealistic," or "fanatic." Micah
says the more we obey God's Law, the easier it becomes to obey
even more. Peter Maurin spoke of a society where it is "easier
to be good." [Back to Micah 4.]
We Walk -- in Community
"God sets the solitary in famlies" (Psalm 68:6). Adoption and domestic apprenticeship are God's answers to statist "welfare." We want the poor and imperfect to be taken care of by the State: out of sight, out of mind. We do not want to be burdened by them. We do not want to take up the Cross. But if we believe God's Word and train our households to follow it,
we find our lives have meaning. We serve and we are served. Faith
is a product of community. [Back to Micah 4.]
Name -- Authority
Christians reflect the Name of Christ, the Prince of Peace. Secular
Humanists carry the name of man, the autonomous rebel. Authority
creates direction, purpose, and meaning in life. Authonomy creates nihilism. [Back to Micah 4.]
We must develop an eternal perspective, which transcends the temporal
and selfish agenda of Hollywood and Washington, D.C. [Back to Micah 4.]
These concepts, repeated throughout the Bible, can be grouped
into seven Archetypes. These themes are the foundation for Vine
& Fig Tree publications:
1. The Garden
The Bible says man was created in a Garden. If we would worship
God, He would provide for us. But we chose to "be as gods" (Gen.
3:5), and substituted a wilderness of scarcity and disease for
the beauty and abundance of God's Garden. Contentment and a harmonious
relationship with the land was replaced with dog-eat-dog militaristic
industrialism. In our poverty and fear, we called out to the demonic
slave-traders of the Polis for protection, and became their slaves.
2. Redemption
Jesus paid the price necessary to "redeem" us (buy us back) from
the slave-traders of the Polis. By destroying this slavery, Christ
established His Kingdom at His First Advent. He is not "coming
soon." In history, the slave-traders, not the Christians, are
"raptured."
3. Catholicism
Christ promises victory: that His Kingdom will spread across the
globe, and will include all nations, all peoples, all races. Humanistic
divisions along lines of class, politics, or genetics are destroyed.
4. Law
This growth will be in terms of obedience to Biblical Law, which
is Christ's Standard of Love, Justice, and Holiness. All authority
and power are God's.
5. Peace
The Law of God requires attitudes of virtue and service; when
mature, these qualities beat "swords into plowshares."
6. Family
The root and center of this growth will be the Family -- not the
violence of the State, nor the sycophancy of ecclesiasticism.
Vine & Fig Tree means a return to Biblical Patriarchy -- and then
new growth in terms of this paradigm.
7. Community
"God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which
are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land."
(Psalm 68:6) The Patriarch Abraham extended his family to include
hundreds of homeless. Christians live in extended families of
community, resisting the myths of the pre-Christian "principalities
and powers."
This is the Gospel which the Scripture preaches from cover to
cover (Galatians 3:8). "Vine & Fig Tree" is a vision of trust
and obedience to God and His Law; a return to the peaceful, agrarian
Patriarchal society of the Bible.
It is a vision which is "unrealistic,"
"utopian," "impractical," and "idealistic," and therefore can
only be accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit, and
thus God, not man, will get all the glory.
We hear talk about a "New World Order." But the Bush/Clinton
regime is really the "Old World Order," from which we are to
remain "unspotted."[5] Micah speaks for the New:
The Old World Order lies to us. The words of Micah's prophecy
concerning "swords into plowshares" is carved into the concrete
of the United Nations building in New York. That organization
ordered the carpet bombing of Iraq and the murder of over 200,000
men, women, and children. Many voices pay lipservice to the Prophets,
and to the Messiah they foretold. But "Not everyone who says to
Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who
does the will of My Father in heaven." (Matthew 7:21)
Vine & Fig Tree is the Biblical vision of trust and obedience
to God and His Law; a return to the peaceful, agrarian Patriarchal
society of the Bible. God promises to bless this repentance with
a restoration of Edenic conditions. It is a vision which is "unrealistic,"
"utopian," "impractical," and "idealistic," and therefore can
only be accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit, and
thus God, not man, and not the United Nations,will get all the
glory.[7]
The goal of Vine & Fig Tree is to publish writings which will
motivate people to follow the Hebrew-Christian Bible and make
its vision a reality. If you ever hear about any Vine & Fig Tree
publications on the CBS Evening News, they will probably be described
as "bizarre" and "fanatic." Our first project is to set out the
meaning of Micah's vision. We hope to have a jump to that exposition by June. Watch for it. [8]
I sometimes speak of Vine & Fig Tree as a "movement." We may laugh
at this presumption -- at least for now. No viewpoint is more of
a minority viewpoint that this one; it is certainly not the dominant
world-and-life-view. But I believe that the vision of Vine & Fig
Tree will become a world-wide, culture-shaping mass movement,
although possibly not until the generation of my great-grandchildren
(or beyond). But in God's time, the Vine & Fig Tree vision as
I have set it out here, presently an overwhelmingly isolated and
fringe viewpoint, will become the dominant cultural perspective.
Sometime thereafter, the weaknesses, shortsightedness, and egotism
of these writings (or an apostasy from this vision[9]) will become evident to people who will be a tiny
minority. They will then begin, as I am now, to critique the dominant
culture. But the prophet Micah says that Vine & Fig Tree is the
winning side.
Anyway, that's what I believe the Bible says. But you may be asking
yourself,
Why bother trying to understand the Bible and some peasant religious
nut who lived three thousand years ago? I am "modern" and "scientific"
and I have no interest in church or religion. Please don't give
me the Bible. What do I need with the Bible?
Jump to What do I need with the Bible? and find out.
NOTES
(1) Not quite true; I often believe the "left-right" dichotomy is false
and misleading. I am uncomfortable with both "left" and "right."
But since everyone else identifies themselves in these terms, you
will find me associated with both. [Back to text.]
(2) Shades of Stanley Vishniewski! [Back to text.]
(3) Hebrews 1:2; 9:26; 1 Peter 1:20; 4:7; 1 John 2:18; Acts 2:16-17. [Back to text.]
(4) In fact, the word translated by the King James Version as
"nation" is the word from which the English word "ethnic" is
derived. [Back to text.]
(5) Along with churches which buttress the power of Empire, and
simultaneously provide "escape" through non-Biblical theological
and liturgical amusements. [Back to text.]
(6) Matthew 7:21. [Back to text.]
(7) The Westminster Shorter Cathechism says "Man's chief end is to
glorify God and enjoy Him forever." To the extent man seeks to
"be as god" (Gen. 3:5), life is unenjoyable. [Back to text.]
(8) The old note read: We discuss this prophecy -- and many many more -- in a book on the subject. Or rather,
"books." One version of the book is written for conservatives,
and is called Vine & Fig Tree: Christianity for the Third Millennium.
The other version is for liberals, and is called Vine & Fig Tree:
The Coming of the Catholic Workers' Paradise. I hope to have a
"Home Page" on the Internet's World Wide Web by the end of 1996.
It will be called "The Christmas Conspiracy." [Back to text.]
(9)
Just as our
nation has apostatized from the theology and cultural vision of
the Puritans. [Back to text.]