The dominion covenant : Genesis

The Dominion Covenant is a multi-volume economic commentary on the Bible. As I explain in the Introduction to Genesis, the biblical covenant is structured into five sections. This covenant model is discussed at length by Ray R. Sutton in his pioneering book, That You May Prosper: Dominion By Covenant (1987 ). The five points of the biblical covenant model are:1. Transcendence/immanence2. Authority/hierarchy3. Ethics/dominion4. Judgment/sanctions5. Inheritance/continuityThe covenant establishes 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 why Genesis 1:26-28 is truly a covenant: it establishes the basis of the relationship between God and man. God the sovereign Creator (point one) creates man to serve as His representative over the creation (point two), commanding mankind to be fruitful and multiply (point five) and exercise dominion (point three). Man is actually defined by God in terms of this dominion covenant, or what is sometimes called the cultural mandate. This covenant governs all four God-mandated human governments: individual, family, church, and civil. [From back cover] This is the first volume of a multi-volume economic commentary on the Bible - the first one ever published - and will provide biblical answers to these questions, and dozens more: Why is Genesis 1:14-18 more hated by humanists than Genesis 1:1? Why was Darwin successful in winning converts when others had failed? Why did God never intend that Adam should rest on the seventh day? Why did Adam refuse to rest on the first day as a principle of life? Why is gold money? (After all, you can't eat gold.) Why does socialism increase pollution? Why do pagan cultures have high interest rates? Why does the Bible say that growth can be a blessing? Why is population explosion morally required? Why is the Social Security System going broke? How old was Jacob really when he left home? (you'll hardly believe it.) What does the Bible teach about personal financial planning? Modern economic thought is humanistic to the core, whether conservative, libertarian, Keynesian, or Marxist. All schools of thought begin with the presupposition that man is the measure of all things, and man's mind is capable, apart from biblical revelation to interpret the world correctly. This is why modern economic theory is in the process of disintegration. This book sets forth the biblical foundations of economics. It offers the basis of the total reconstruction of economic theory and practice. It specifically abandons the universal presupposition of all modern schools of economics: Darwinian evolution. Economics must begin with the doctrine of creation. What does the Bible require of men in the area of economics and business? What does the Bible have to say about economic theory? Does it teach the free market, or socialism, or a mixture of the two, or something completely different? Is there really an exclusively Christian approach to economics? What youre about to read represents a self-conscious effort to rethink the oldest and most rigorous social science in terms of the doctrine of creation. Every social science requires such a reconstruction. The ""baptized humanism"" of the modern Christian college classroom must be abandoned by all those who take seriously God's command that Christians go forth and subdue the earth (Genesis 1:28). We must begin with the doctrine of creation if we are not to end in total chaos. This is the central message of this book. God's curse of the ground (Genesis 3:17-19) made scarcity an inescapable aspect of man's existence. This is the specific economic starting point for Christian economics. Apart from these fundamental presuppositions, economics is inescapably irrational and self-contradictory. This book was originally titled: The Dominion Covenant: Genesis