Gems from the North (10) - Standards

Social theory requires a unified, authoritative concept of good and bad, right and wrong, efficient and inefficient. To be consistent, it must affirm the existence of known or at least knowable standards, and it must also affirm that there is a sanctioning process that rewards the good (or the efficient) and penalizes the bad (or the inefficient ). If the standards are affirmed without also affirming appropriate sanctions, then there is no way for society to insure justice. There is also no way for it to insure progress. Modern Christian theology has denied both biblical law (the standards) and God’s historical sanctions. It has therefore sought the standards of society elsewhere.

Dispensationalists have generally avoided even discussing social theory. They recognize their theological dilemma and have prudently remained silent. Neo-evangelical social scientists have spoken out in the name of Jesus, and have sounded very much like a cassette tape of some abandoned political program of a decade earlier. Amillennialists have generally done what the neo-evangelical premillennialists have: baptized secular humanism, meaning politically liberal humanism. They have generally adopted the worldview of the professors who certified them at humanist universities. There has to be a better way. Christians will never beat something with nothing (Premillenialism and Social Theory p.208,209).