Patriarchy Before the Fall

A. PATRIARCHY BEFORE THE FALL

THESIS 1: THE BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF PATRIARCHY

THESIS 2: THE DOMINION MANDATE

THESIS 3: PATRIARCHY AND THE "EXTENDED FAMILY"

THESIS 4: PATRIARCHY: THE ORIGINAL SOCIETY

THESIS 5: PATRIARCHY AND THE SANCTIONS OF THE COVENANT

THESIS 6: THE PRIORITY OF AGRARIANISM

THESIS 7: PATRIARCHY AND THE MOUNTAIN

THESIS 1: THE BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF PATRIARCHY

God creates people in Families. No one is born autonomously; every human being is born into a Family of at least a mother and a father. That Home is either a Godly Home or a dysfunctional (broken) home. "Individualism" is an inadequate sociological paradigm.[1]

Notes

I have been greatly influenced by Bill Gothard's Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts. The first human relationship we have as human beings is with our parents. To the degree we fail to learn and exhibit the character of Christ in this primal relationship, we fail in other relationships.

Individualism is the failure to see the Cross in every family. Jesus taught us to submit to one another. Inevitably, the first people we are called to submit to are members of our own families. This works in two ways:

First, our parents may demand that we exhibit Godly character at a moment when we want to be selfish "archists." We can either resist, lose Godly character, and sow the seeds of bitterness, or we can submit and become patriarchs.
But even when their demands are unjust and illegitimate, Christ's model is still submission. The Spirit would build character in us in the same way Christ learned it - by enduring unjust suffering.

If the character of Christ is learned and becomes habitual in the lives of many people, we will have a "well-governed" society. When we refuse to submit, render evil for evil, and resist the grace of God, relationships are fragmented, and guilt and bitterness plague all future relationships.

So far, there is no need for a civil government. There is a radical, natural, ontological, archetypal need for Patriarchy.

Misconceptions Cleared

This thesis gives no support to those men who feel a need to establish their "manhood" by beating their wife or children. Domestic violence is a product of secular humanism (every man his own god), not the ethics of Jesus Christ.

THESIS 2: THE DOMINION MANDATE

Man was created to exercise "dominion" over the earth.2 This mandate is sometimes called "The Cultural Mandate," both to signify its comprehensive scope (#64) and to distinguish a Godly stewardship from an unGodly and selfish domination of the creation.3

Notes

The overwhelming majority of Christians do not take seriously the mandate we have as stewards over the creation. Christians generally relegate their faith to the "private" sphere, ignoring the world around them, or simply following the orders of the "principalities and powers."

There is no need for a civil government to carry out the Dominion Mandate.

But there is a need for Christians to consider the implications of the Dominion Mandate, and reclaim every area of life, every aspect of human culture, all human action - even "politics" - and place them under the Lordship of Christ and God's Commands.

Christianity is infected by "neo-platonism," the view that despises the material world. Christians thus infected tend to ignore political and social issues.

The God Who created the world intends to save it.

Misconceptions Cleared

Just as a man is not allowed to beat his wife, so he is not allowed to beat the creation.

THESIS 3: PATRIARCHY AND THE "EXTENDED FAMILY"

In the Bible the Godly "Family" answers to our "extended" Family.4 While it is the basic legal unit of society,5 the "nuclear family" is culturally sub-Biblical.

Notes

"Family values" is not enough. The Reconstruction of society goes beyond the boundaries of 2 parents and 1.8 children.

Misconceptions Cleared

Where nothing is found in this section, your questions are eagerly solicited.

THESIS 4: PATRIARCHY: THE ORIGINAL SOCIETY

In the Garden of Eden there was no "State," nor was there a "church." Every sociological function necessary for the smooth (shalom) and Godly ("righteous," "just") operation of a society (e.g., health, education, welfare, etc.) can be provided by Godly Families.6

Notes

It is clear that when man was created there was no need for a State. There was nothing in the nature of man that necessitated the creation of a State. As we read through the Scriptures, we must keep our eyes open for God's evaluation of any movement from Patriarchy to Politics. Those who seek to legitimize the State must find some indication that God wants human beings to form a State; as it is now (in the Garden of Eden), there is no need for one.

Misconceptions Cleared

THESIS 5: PATRIARCHY AND THE SANCTIONS OF THE COVENANT

Cultural prosperity will be given only if Families will do their duty;7 obedience is blessed under the terms of God's Covenant with man8 while disobedience is cursed.9 The terms of God's Law as revealed by the Holy Spirit to Moses and the Prophets is written on the hearts of believers in the New Covenant,10 and they follow these statutes and ordinances in every area of their lives11 (#64).

Notes

These Theses have been greatly influenced by the so-called "Theonomy" or "Christian Reconstruction" movement. "Blessing" - that is, social order, prosperity, health, peace, welfare, or the common good - comes by obeying God's Law, not by forming a State.

Misconceptions Cleared

THESIS 6: THE PRIORITY OF AGRARIANISM

Man was created in a Garden, with the basic command to dress, cultivate, and guard the land.12 Meaningful work was given to man in the pre-Fall Garden of Eden;13 food was plentiful but required harvesting.14 Economic scarcity is not a product of the Fall in a vague, ubiquitous, automatic, "natural" sense, but is a product of deliberate human action (laziness, theft, price controls, war), and less frequently, the direct judgment (#42) or testing15 at the hand of God through angelic agency.

Notes

"Cult, culture, and cultivation" is a phrase suggested by Peter Maurin, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement. Famine is not prevented by the State, it is more often caused by the State.

The political organization of society prevents us from being in touch with the land.

Misconceptions Cleared

It is not the purpose of this Thesis to attack technology. The Bible commands us to "beat our swords into plowshares" (Micah 4:1-5), and plows are tools, or technology. Swords, on the other hand, are evidence of a "technocracy," which is a rival to a Christian Theocracy. The technology of a Christian Theocracy will undercut the power of a Humanist Technocracy.

THESIS 7: PATRIARCHY AND THE MOUNTAIN

The Garden of Eden was on a Mountain.16 Our sin caused us to be cast out of the Mountain.17 When God reveals His Edenic Grace through Redemptive acts on mountains,18 He symbolizes concretely what the Prophets foretold by speaking of this Mountain: the future Edenification of the Earth.19 These prophecies are now coming to pass.20 The vision of the "Vine & Fig Tree" is a vision of the restoration of Patriarchal society and Edenic culture.21

Notes

The "mountain" is an important Biblical image. It is the bases for cultural optimism, as we will see.

Many objections to the vision of global patriarchy as espoused in these Theses is rooted in pessimism. We cannot oppose the State and the Humanistic "New World Order" because they are powerful and we are weak and unorganized. Besides, Jesus is coming back soon, and work to relieve the oppressed and bring justice only delays His coming.

We will be forced to grapple with "pessimillennialism" and other statist eschatologies in the course of these Theses.

Misconceptions Cleared

(1) Genesis 2:18

(2) Genesis 1:26-28; 9:1-3,7,10; Psalm 8:5-8

(3) Deuteronomy 20:19; 25:4; Proverbs 12:10

(4) Genesis 6:18; 14:14; Joshua 7:18

(5) Genesis 2:24

(6) See generally Genesis 12-35; #14.

(7) Luke 17:10; Micah 6:8

(8) Deuteronomy 28:1-14; Leviticus 26:3-13

(9) Deuteronomy 28:15-68; Leviticus 26:14-39

(10) Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:7-13.

(11) Ezekiel 36:25-27; Romans 8:1-4.

(12) Genesis 2:15

(13) Cult: Genesis 1:26; Culture: Genesis 1:28; 2:12; 2:19.

(14) Cultivation: Genesis 1:29; 2:5; 2:9; 2:15; 2:16

(15) Job 2:3

(16) Genesis 2:10-14; Ezekiel 28:13-14

(17) Genesis 3:24; Exodus 19:12

(18) Genesis 22:2; 2 Chronicles 3:1; Exodus 24:9-11; Matthew 5:1; Mark 3:13f.; 2 Peter 1:16-18; Matthew 26:30; 28:16-20; Acts 1:9-12

(19) Isaiah 2:2-4; 11:9; 25:6-9; 56:3-8; 65:25; Daniel 2:34-35,44-45

(20) Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 2:7; Matthew 5:14 + Isaiah 60:3; #91

(21) Micah 4:1-5