Business, Education, and The Kingdom of God as Civilization

The Business Covenant

Is there a "Church Covenant?"

Is there a "State Covenant?"

Is there an "Individual Covenant?"

If you took Christian Reconstructionism 101, you heard about "God's four covenants: personal, church, family, state" (quoting Gary North, our emphasis).

That's the way theologians talk.

But when we look at the Bible itself, we get a different picture.

When Gary North writes an "Economic Commentary" on Genesis he says

 "There are five, and only five covenants in the Bible: the general dominion covenant, plus personal, family, church, and civil covenants. Each of the covenants two through five corresponds to an agency of government." [our yellow highlight, his italics]

His commentary was originally titled "The Dominion Covenant." The new revised edition is entitled Sovereignty and Dominion, but he is even more emphatic about the importance of "The Dominion Covenant."

Are there really "four covenants: personal, church, family, state" Where are these covenants made? Where are these "agencies of government" created?

Our thesis is: there is no such thing as a "church covenant" or a "civil covenant."

Let's look more closely at North's comments:

Gary North Kevin Craig

First, there is the dominion covenant. Mankind’s very definition is in terms of the dominion covenant of Genesis 1:26–28. Man is made in God’s image, and he is to exercise dominion in God’s name. There is no escape from this aspect of man’s being.

 OK, we actually have a passage of Scripture cited here. I'm not sure why this is called a "covenant" rather than simply a "commandment." I think theologians like to amplify the importance of something by throwing around the word "covenant" or "covenantal." But, OK, "dominion covenant" it is.

The dominion covenant is the most fundamental covenant. The dominion covenant governs the other four: personal, family, church, and civil.

 Do these other four "covenants" actually exist?
Mankind is defined in terms of the dominion covenant—not in terms of family, church, or state. I'll agree with this. For now. [The emphasis is Gary's.] [It deserves emphasis.]

Second, there is the individual covenant. God made His covenant with Adam as an individual, not only as the representative of mankind. God brings judgment on individuals (Luke 16). Individuals suffer the consequences of their actions, both in history and eternity.

 Did God make a "covenant" with Adam as an individual, or with the human race as a family? The "dominion covenant" is clearly made not with Adam as an individual, but with the family, "male and female":
 

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Gary North says ("Christian Economics in One Lesson, II: 3, The Division of Labor") the Family exemplifies the "division of labor":

Adam did not initially have a wife. His work was hampered. He needed a helper fit for him (Gen. 2:18). When God gave him Eve, Adam was given a way to increase his own output. The scarcity of the garden was not cursed, but it did exist. To perform his tasks better, including procreation, Adam required the assistance of someone who shared his humanity who had capacities different from his.

The testimony of the garden experience was that even in the original good environment, there was room for growth. The very concept of "room for growth" implies the division of labor. The environment of Eden was incomplete. Living things in the creation were supposed to multiply. The environment could not only sustain more living things, God positively required this. Men are commanded to be fruitful and multiply.

The "tasks" Adam was to perform are "dominion" tasks. See also Chapter 46: Family in Christian Economics: Teacher's Edition.

The task of Dominion was given to the Family. Sure, individuals will be held accountable for their actions, but the Dominion Mandate cannot be carried out solely by individuals. Dominion requires families.
  Here's what I'm getting at. Theologians find a "church covenant" and a "civil covenant," but overlook the "Dominion Covenant." But most of our day-to-day lives are engaged in the exercise of Dominion. This is the world of "Business." Only one hour a week is in "church." Most of what the State does (I would argue everything the State does) is unBiblical. Theologians live in a cocoon. The Bible applies to business.

Why is there not a "Business Covenant?"

Two reasons: First, theologians don't like wealth.
Second, the idea of a "Business Covenant" would lead to "Patriarchy," or to a word I invented, "Patriagora," which means families doing business in the "market" without the institutions of "church" and "state."

It is families that create businesses. Just ask the Rockefellers.

When unmarried men run businesses, you have problems. Just ask George Gilder.

"The Church" (speaking of the Catholic Church) is composed of unmarried men.
The Protestant Church has married men, but they are opponents of dominion. They are not in a tentmaker business, but in an ecclesiastical cloister -- otherwise, they may run their mega-"church" as a very profitable "business" -- that is, a money-making con-game. Every legitimate function of "the church" was given to the Family.

The Church is at best irrelevant to married men running businesses and exercising dominion; at worst, the "Church" is the enemy of families and businesses.

And, of course, the State is flat out the enemy of families and businesses.
  North writes on How Business Supplanted the Family as the Central Unit of Production. He fails to note how family authority created businesses, how the resolution of disputes was captured by the State and transferred from the "Law Merchant" to the "Common Law," how the modern corporation is the product of limited liability laws, and the "industrial revolution" might not have happened without State-created "fiat money" (both of which -- limited liability and fiat money -- Rushdoony addresses in his book The Politics of Guilt and Pity); in short, how "business" as a rival of the Family is actually the war of "the State" on the Family. More.

The Family is still the normative fountainhead of dominion.
Third, there is the family covenant. Where, if not in Genesis 1:26-28?

Fourth, there is the church covenant. God is sovereign over it, and specially present in the sacraments. It has a system of hierarchical authority. Specific laws govern it. There is a baptismal oath, either explicit (adults) or representative (parents in the name of infants). There is continuity: membership and ordination of officers.

 Where is this "covenant?" Noah's family was a "church." Abraham's family was a "church." When was "the church covenant" made? Was it made with Aaron and the Levitical priests? Is that covenant still in force? Or was it replaced with the covenant with Melchizedek, the king of Salem? (Genesis 14:18; Hebrews 7:1-3). This king was also a priest, debunking the myth of "separation of church and state."

Fifth, there is the civil covenant. God ordains it and governs it. There is hierarchy: a court system. There are civil laws revealed by God. There are oaths: implicit (citizenship) and explicit (magistrates). There is continuity: elections, constitutional amending process, judicial precedents, etc.

 Where is the "civil" covenant made? Not with Noah; that covenant was made with Noah "and his sons" as a family, not "the State," according to scholars like John Frame.


Levitical priests in Ancient Israel.
No, wait. Let me check on that.


Levitical priests in Ancient Israel.
Hmmm... I don't think that's right either.

 Imagining the existence of a "civil covenant" creates all kinds of confusion.

"Elders" in the Old Covenant were clearly family heads, though they are often counted as part of "the State" (in contrast to the priests who formed the other half of a "separation of church and state" allegedly found in the Old Testament).

However, "elders" in the New Covenant are said by theologians to be part of "the Church," despite the prevalence of "house churches" in the New Testament. So are "elders" "church" or "state?" "Ekklesia" was originally a civil term. Why are "elders" not part of "the family covenant?"

"The Institutional Church" was in fact the creation of The State under Constantine. "The Church," created by the State, is a holdover from the now-abolished Old Covenant priesthood.

Dominion trumps priesthood. The Family trumps "the Church."

God’s five covenants establish the judicial basis of the personal relationship between God and man. There can be no relationship between God and man apart from a covenant. This is the overarching definitional covenant, the dominion covenant. Genesis 1:26–28 is truly a covenant: it establishes the judicial basis of the relationship between God and man. God the sovereign Creator (point one) created mankind to serve as His representatives over the creation (point two), commanding mankind to be fruitful and multiply (point five) and exercise dominion (point three). Mankind as a species is defined by God in terms of this dominion covenant, or what is sometimes called the cultural mandate. This covenant governs all four God-mandated governments: individual, family, church, and civil.

 Why is it that God cannot command man without entering into a "covenant?"

But, yes, the "overarching definitional" character of human beings is dominion under God. It is expressly stated in Genesis 1:26-27.

 

But where are those other "covenants" and "governments?"
 

Healthy Business is Family Business

I would like to suggest that "business" is a mode of family hospitality. It is a means of loving and serving strangers, which is the second greatest commandment (Mark 12:31). "Exercising dominion" means making "natural resources" useful for service. For further reading, see:

State Business is Sick Business

When "business" is separated from family hospitality, it becomes worldly (James 4:4) and covetous. In fact, it becomes evil: Plowing is good, but "the plowing of the wicked is sin." (Proverbs 21:4)

As I suggested above, the "industrial revolution" resulted from the separation of business and family, as the State gained power over businesses through "limited liability" laws and fiat money. This produced what James Jordan called "The Enoch Factor" (updated in Biblical Horizons » No. 37: The Case Against Western Civilization, Part 2 ). "Business" (Corporations) also increased their dependence on State power through what Kevin Carson called "The Iron Fist Behind the Invisible Hand."

We love our smartphones, but what created them is truly ugly.

Gary North has given some thought to what created "the Industrial Revolution" by asking the question "How Come We’re So Rich?"  Why is a counterfeiter "rich?" Answer: he stole it by transferring the purchasing power of the monetary unit of his neighbors to himself. How does the government create a "boom?" Answer: by stealing purchasing power from future generations, who will be poorer when the "bust" comes. The "industrial revolution" is the "boom" of a centuries-long "business cycle."

By emphasizing "economic" growth while minimizing spiritual growth of character, the stage is set for massive upheaval when state subsidization ends. By "massive upheaval" I mean something like "The Purge." Ask yourself, "What do pampered spoiled brats do when the pampering comes to an end?" It won't be pretty. It follows what Mises called "The Crack-Up Boom."
 

Education

Raymond Moore is the author of several books against early education. He advises not to worry about "homeschooling" your kids through history, algebra, etc. Let them be a part of the family, especially the family business, and then when they're old enough for highschool, they will be able to learn in one year everything you would have tried to teach them from Kindergarten through Jr. High. Let them learn whatever they want in those years, but don't waste time trying to "school" them at home.

The Jewish "Bar Mitvah" (lit, "son of command") celebrates the transition from childhood to adulthood. Up until very recently in human history, there was no such thing as "adolescence." People did not have the luxury of not helping the family survive, and remaining on their parents' health insurance until age 26.

The equivalent of the "Bar Mitzvah" in Puritan America was being apprenticed out to a business to learn a trade (when there wasn't a match between the "child's" calling and his own parents' business). Samuel Adams began attending Harvard University at age 14, after he had learned Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, which were entrance requirements (not requirements for graduation). The University was more typical for elite children headed for professions in church (clergy) or state (lawyer).

In today's world, children should be allowed to work in factories which also engage in education. Socialism took root in Cuba in part because of a tradition of the Lector de tabaquería, a teacher in a cigar-making factory who read socialist propaganda to the workers. Photos. English links:

Not schools, not churches, but businesses are where people are 8 hours a day, and education must be a part of business, in order to prevent businesses from being hijacked by the State, and to prevent workers from pursuing policies which doom themselves and the businesses they work for.

Genesis 13:2
2 Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold

Genesis 14:14
14 And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.

In the links below, see the quote from F. Willeson who estimates from this verse that the total size of Abraham's home business was over 10,000 people:

The Family is the cradle of Christian Reconstruction.
The Family Business is the school of Christian Reconstruction.
The "Church" and the "State" are both dysfunctional institutions.