Dominion Of God

Brett Whalen explores the compelling belief that Christendom would spread to every corner of the earth before the end of time. During the High Middle Ages—an era of crusade, mission, and European expansion—the Western followers of Rome imagined the future conversion of Jews, Muslims, pagans, and Eastern Christians into one fold of God’s people, assembled under the authority of the Roman Church. Starting with the eleventh-century papal reform, Whalen shows how theological readings of history, prophecies, and apocalyptic scenarios enabled medieval churchmen to project the authority of Rome over the world. Looking to Byzantium, the Islamic world, and beyond, Western Christians claimed their special place in the divine plan for salvation, whether they were battling for Jerusalem or preaching to unbelievers. For those who knew how to read the signs, history pointed toward the triumph and spread of Roman Christianity. Yet this dream of Christendom raised troublesome questions about the problem of sin within the body of the faithful. By the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, radical apocalyptic thinkers numbered among the papacy’s most outspoken critics, who associated present-day ecclesiastical institutions with the evil of Antichrist—a subversive reading of the future. For such critics, the conversion of the world would happen only after the purgation of the Roman Church and a time of suffering for the true followers of God. This engaging and beautifully written book offers an important window onto Western religious views in the past that continue to haunt modern times.

God gave dominion over His creation to Adam, but it was lost due to sin. That’s why a new, sinless Adam was needed. That New Adam is Jesus Christ. The dominion mandate, to fill the earth and subdue it, is now Christ’s mandate. The church, often referred to as the bride and body of Christ, is the physical means through which our Lord operates in the world and carries out His mission. But the mandate, like the first Adam before Him, is His. The church, the bride, the new and resurrected Eve is to assist and obey Him in everything, responding to Him with faith. The Bible is not a religious manual informing us what doctrines to believe to “be saved.” The Bible is a completed work detailing and describing for us, the heirs of God’s creation, the fate of the world that existed before and the divine principles upon which Christ will advance His everlasting kingdom. The Father did not send His Son to replace an old, outdated religion with a new and better religion. God sent His Son to raise the dead to life, to restore a broken relationship between God and man, and to remake mankind into His image. With His Spirit, united with our spirit, in these mortal bodies, humanity is to exhibit His divine attributes through acts of love, wisdom, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth, transforming the entire world in the process. That is the whole point of Christianity. In Covenant of Dominion: The Salvation of the World in Christ, G. Michael Rowe explains the proper context that brings the New Testament into focus and can dispel the many doctrinal issues that are dividing the church. The proper context is preterism. The framework for understanding the dominion mandate and the destiny of the church is the covenant.

Semple covers virtually every aspect of Canadian Methodism. He examines early nineteenth-century efforts to evangelize pioneer British North America and the revivalistic activities so important to the mid-nineteenth-century years. He documents Methodists' missionary work both overseas and in Canada among aboriginal peoples and immigrants. He analyses the Methodist contribution to Canadian education and the leadership the church provided for the expansion of the role of women in society. He also assesses the spiritual and social dimensions of evangelical religion in the personal lives of Methodists, addressing such social issues as prohibition, prostitution, the importance of the family, and changing attitudes toward children in Methodist doctrine and Canada in general. Semple argues that Methodism evolved into the most Canadian of all the churches, helping to break down the geographic, political, economic, ethnic, and social divisions that confounded national unity. Although the Methodist Church did not achieve the universality it aspired to, he concludes that it succeeded in defining the religious, political, and social agenda for the Protestant component of Canada, providing a powerful legacy of service to humanity and to God.

The deterioration of our natural environment under the impact of a rampant technological society is one of the major crises of our time. For many analysts, a primary cause of this crisis is the influence on Western culture of the Judaeo-Christian concept of the human being as having dominion over the rest of creation. In this book, Douglas John Hall does not attempt to exonerate historical Christianity from that charge. But, he argues, confession alone is not enough. The crisis of nature forces us to rethink our whole understanding of the relation between humanity and nature - an understanding that is based on the concept that human beings are created in the image of God ('imago Dei'). Hall carefully examines the biblical, historical, and theological meanings of this term, which, more than any other biblical expression, became Christianity's symbolic way of designating the essence of the human. Hall argues that the image of God is not an endowment - it is not something that human beings have; rather, it is a quality that pertains to our relationship with God. We should think of 'imago' as a verb, not a noun, he says. The human vocation within the created order is to image the Creator. When this is applied in a consistent and serious way, the idea of human dominion over all of nature must be radically reinterpreted. Taking the Lordship of Jesus as an authentic model for understanding our human relation to the natural order means that dominion is expressed not as mastery but as service - sacrificial service of the others with and for whom one is responsible. Thus the concept of dominion as stewardship eschews any idea of ownership or superiority in relation to nature, yet assumes a special accountability for its welfare. A provocative and original work, Hall's book retains the biblical centrality of 'homo sapiens' while at the same time raising both nature and God to a new kind of prominence in the dialogue that is life.

A "marvelous" (Economist) account of how the Christian Revolution forged the Western imagination. Crucifixion, the Romans believed, was the worst fate imaginable, a punishment reserved for slaves. How astonishing it was, then, that people should have come to believe that one particular victim of crucifixion-an obscure provincial by the name of Jesus-was to be worshipped as a god. Dominion explores the implications of this shocking conviction as they have reverberated throughout history. Today, the West remains utterly saturated by Christian assumptions. As Tom Holland demonstrates, our morals and ethics are not universal but are instead the fruits of a very distinctive civilization. Concepts such as secularism, liberalism, science, and homosexuality are deeply rooted in a Christian seedbed. From Babylon to the Beatles, Saint Michael to #MeToo, Dominion tells the story of how Christianity transformed the modern world.

“People everywhere are struggling to fine the true meaning to their lives in this world. It seems like everything is getting out of control; countries, governments, societies, economies, families, organizations, and in many instances, our faith. The human family seems to be in a perpetual crisis that they cannot pull themselves from. This crisis has made mankind vulnerable to his environment and the natural creation of the earth; and the more we try to solve these problems, the worse the problems seem to get. Who has the authority and ability to bring stability in the earth to solve these problems we are faced with and maintain peaceful and stable environment by which all creation can thrive? Why are we not breaking through? What is it we are doing wrong? Why do we constantly struggle with these questions? Why can’t we find the answers that addressed these questions? In the midst of all of these experiences, the number one question in the heart of many people is: Can there be solutions to these problems we are face?” And the answer is YES! Principles for Living in Dominion (The answers to all mankind dilemmas) was written to answer these fundamental questions and to also take you into the mind of the Creator about who we are and how we were designed to function on the earth. There are 41 principles identified from the word of God that reveal the secret solution to all of our dilemmas. As you read and learn these principles and apply them to your daily living, you will grow and flourish, finding the joy and fulfillment that only life in the purpose of God can bring.”

A gripping supernatural thriller of biblical proportions...quite literally.