Should Christians Help To Restore The Earth?

In this regular feature Dave and Tom address questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call.Here is this week’s question:Dear Dave and Tom:I’ve been reading your books for years now, going all the way back to Dave’s Peace, Prosperity and the Coming Holocaust and The Seduction of Christianity, by the both of you nearly a quarter century ago.One thing I find curious is that over the years you have addressed movements that focus on restoring the earth, from the Latter Rain and Kingdom Dominionist of the charismatics to the Reconstructionist Movement of the Reformed theologians and Calvinists.My question is, Do you see these ideas coming back today through Rick Warren’s global agenda, and those promoting The Emerging Church Movement?

Tom:

Dave, I see the same thing, I mean, we could go all the way back to John Calvin in Geneva.I mean, this was going to be a Christian utopia right on earth, right?

Dave:

Yeah, Tom, it’s astonishing!We’re going to build a kingdom here and then turn it over to the Lord?This is what the Reconstructionists believe.Somehow, we are going to reshape this world so that Christ will be pleased with it and then He will return to rule over it?It’s a theme that you find in Rick Warren, his Peace Plan.What is this about?It comes right out of, as we have often quoted, John:3:17For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
See All..., in Peterson’s The Message.

Tom:

Well, let me quote it for our listeners.“God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending His Son merely to point an accusing finger telling the world how bad it was, He came to help to put the world right again.”And supposedly, that’s John:3:17For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
See All....

Dave:

Yeah, what does John:3:17For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
See All... say, let me quote it: “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world: but that the world through Him might be saved.”And in paraphrasing others, fixing it up, expanding it, Eugene Peterson, what does he do?He destroys it, he changes the meaning.

Tom:

He has an agenda here, Dave, and it’s anti-biblical.

Dave:

Absolutely, but this is one reason, must be one reason, why Rick quotes The Message so often in The Purpose Driven Life because this is what he is intending to do.He didn’t give that away at the very beginning, butyou could have wondered.You see, what this does, Tom—Well, we’ve been talking about “Not by works.” What was it to the level now?Man is going to do this, and isn’t it nice that Jesus was sent into the world to help us make the world right.How are we going to do this?Well, we’re back to the same old problem, “not by works of righteousness that we’ve done” and so forth.So, here we are, we’re going to build a new world?This is what Rick now is trying to do.

Tom:

Dave, let me just add this.What we are seeing here, we talked about Latter Rain, Christian Reconstructionism for the non Charismatics, the Reformed Theologians, and so on, but this was all oriented toward the church.In other words, the reconstructionists they were theonomous, they were going to apply the law, and when people saw how Christians were applying the law they were going to be impressed by that, because that’s what was going to bring about changing the earth into a paradise.But now what we are seeing, and we’ve seen this lately from Rick Warren is we are going to work with all religions.I’ll give you a quote here:This Ibelieve he was interviewed by a Pittsburgh paper, he says:“Who’s the man of peace in any village?”The idea is that he started out by saying, There’s a church in every village.They don’t have schools, they don’t have this they don’t have that, but every village has a church, and if we can put them together as distribution points for things like medicine and for teaching and for education and all of that, that’s how we’re going to solve the world’s problems, whathe calls, the global giants.Well anyway, he says:Who’s the man of peace in any village?It might be a woman of peace who has the most respect.They don’t have to be Christian, in fact, they could be Muslim, but they are open and they are influential and you work with them to attack the five giants.And by he way, he started out with five giants and then he has added another one which is global warming.He quotes a secular leader who affirms what he is doing.She says:“I get it, Rick, houses of worship are the distribution centers for all we need to do.” Now, Dave, the grievous part of this, the tragic part is that whenyou work with other religions aren’t you saying to them, look, you can please God by doing something for the common good.You are people of faith and as long as you’re doing this to the glory of Allah, or Brahman, or whoever, Kali, you know, this is a good thing.

Dave:

Tom, this has been going on for a long time.Pat Robertson talked about people of faith, and Bush has talked about people of faith.

Tom:

Yeah, the Faith Initiative, that was part of his legacy, he believes for his tenure.

Dave:

Yes.People of faith, we’ve been into that before, people of faith.What do you mean by faith?Faith in whom”What God are we talking about?Well, now, tragically, it seems that Rick has joined this crowd, because this is the popular way to go, and it doesn’t matter, what do you believe in?Well, the local witchdoctor—why he’s a man of faith too.It could be, you’ve pointed out, it could be the local imam.People of faith—so long as you have some kind of faith, religious faith, then you’re okay. God will accept that, you’re on your way to heaven, we don’t need to give you the gospel.That’s the great tragedy.So, when we are joined together with these people in this common cause it seems so good, we’re working toward a good end, a better world, and we’re going to work together on it.But then, as you point out, Tom, then we are giving them the impression that they have the same faith that we have, and the same God, or it doesn’t really matter.

Tom:

And Dave, they are being saved by their works, that’s what they have to come to believe.

Dave:

That’s right, and we are leading these people to hell!