The Blenheim Manifesto

The following guest post has been adapted from an original post from Dr. David Field’s blog on 10 February 2008. David lives and lectures in London and will be returning to speak at this year’s Trinity Fest (on Great Cities of the Bible). To view the rest of the post and visit his blog, click here. To download the talks, click here.

The Blenheim Manifesto
We had a splendid afternoon at Blenheim Palace yesterday, hearing three
lectures from Doug Wilson on

• The Gospel and Your Church
• The Gospel and Your Family
• The Gospel and Your Government

The talks will be available from Canon Press as The Blenheim Lectures before long but, as in the title of this post, they could easily be regarded, together, as a “Blenheim Manifesto”—a three-talk description of and agenda for the display and implementation of the total rule of the Lord Jesus Christ in all of life. Get hold of these and listen carefully to them all the way through—the argument of the talks (individually and as a series) is compelling and exhilarating. Here are a few snippets to give a taste:

1) The Gospel and Your Church
The gospel is never less than personal salvation but personal salvation is not the sum of the gospel. The gospel preached to Abraham was that all nations would be blessed through his seed. (And if we are keen to imitate the faith of Abraham then we had better believe what he believed as well as how he believed!).

The universal realm and rule of Jesus, the kingdom, has the Church at its centre and the Church’s job is to worship. In worship we go to heaven and ask God to glorify Jesus on earth as we glorify him in heaven. So if our worship in heaven is impotent or childish then it follows that the Church on earth will be impotent and childish and that the world will trample on the Church as on salt that has lost its savour.

Reformation in worship means different things in different settings:

• a) where the liturgy is Christ-honouring in form but lifeless then we need resurrection
• b) where (amongst lots of evangelicals) we have “liturgies designed for a child’s birthday party” then we need to grow up
• c) where a) or b) are not possible then we need to plant churches.

2) The Gospel and Your Family
We live in “fatherless” and “father-hungry” times. John the Baptist was to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers. The alternative to the Malachi blessing was that a curse would strike the land but in the Gospel the fifth commandment, resurrected, brings the expanded promise of living long in the earth.

Father-hunger is a symptom of idolatry and a cause of the paternalistic society. We are not about “family-centredness” but about the kingdom of God.

The family must be surrendered and buried. It must be demoted from #1. Remember, if your wife is #1 she is “getting ripped off” because, alienated from the life and love of God (as, engaging in that idolatry, you are) you will quickly run out of blessing for her. But if God is #1 and your wife is #2 then you’re in fellowship with the source of all grace and goodness and thus far better placed to be a blessing to your wife.

Taking responsibility: the operating assumption in all marriage counselling is that it is ALL the husband’s responsibility. Yes, the
wife may bear some personal guilt but responsibility in this sense is a covenantal thing. The husband must assume responsibility for all that happens in the household.

3) The Gospel and Your Government
Jesus was crucified in a public way by the authorities and the message of the cross “topples the princes of the world.”

Jesus presents a saved world to the Father. He came to save the world not to condemn it.

His claims are total – the kings over which he is King are all the kings on earth.

Evangelicals are too often like the 10 spies—'”it can’t be done”. But the Bible uses totalitarian language (Jesus is Lord of all) and Christian-lite needs to say something that sounds like the Bible. So

• a) individualism – Jesus is Lord of all of my heart!
• b) gnosticism – Jesus is Lord of spiritual things
• c) rationalism – Jesus is Lord of all but governs through the “unsigned letter”.

The pietist is all cross and no resurrection. Current British tendency—buried with Christ and determined to stay buried. Having a hard time believing the triumphant good news of the resurrection. The path is the cross, the destination is resurrection. The pietist treats the path as the destination.

The climber is all resurrection and no cross. Current American tendency—having a hard time accepting the path of the cross. The path is the cross, the destination is the resurrection. The climber wants to reach the destination without walking the path.

The Church grants exemptions (in the name of the separation of church and state or of pluralism) where God has granted none.

The Great Commission is declaring to the nations that they might as well come along quietly.

And then some particularly striking lines along the way:

• “When we think about the greatness of the Great Commission, we don’t need to worry about over-doing it.”
• “Without death in Christ and resurrection in Christ, everything touched is abused.”
• “It’s not a weed-field with wheat in it; it’s a wheat-field with weeds in it.”
• “Of course we’re theocratic. Everyone’s theocratic. The question is, “Who’s Theo?””
• BCE and CE—that’s fine: “Before Christ’s Empire” and “Christ’s Empire”
• “We want comfort for being losers rather than forgiveness for being sinners because forgiveness brings in its train the demand for change.”
• George MacDonald: “Obedience is the great opener of eyes.”
• Saul and the Israelites saw Goliath and thought, “Look, a giant, we can’t win.” David saw Goliath and thought, “Look, a giant, I can’t miss!”
• If all culture is religion externalized, it is also true to say that all religion is culture internalized.
• In Philippians 2 the greatest humbling is followed by the highest exaltation.
• There were glitches in Christendom 1.0. So we need to move to Christendom 2.0.