," where "Satan
is Alive and Well."The Vine & Fig Tree Worldview
Vine & Fig Tree is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization.
Our mission is to help bring about the fulfillment of Micah's "Vine & Fig Tree" prophecy (Micah 4:1-7).
| Self-Evident Truths | Theocracy | The Bible | God's Sovereignty | Theonomy | Eschatology |
| America | Capitalism | Christian Reconstruction | Education | Coaching | Church | Politics |
| Creationism | Prayer | Extremism! |
George Washington's Diaries are available online at the Library of Congress. That website introduces those writings with these words:
No theme appears more frequently in the writings of Washington than his love for his land. The diaries are a monument to that concern. In his letters he referred often, as an expression of this devotion and its resulting contentment, to an Old Testament passage. After the Revolution, when he had returned to Mount Vernon, he wrote the Marquis de Lafayette on Feb. 1, 1784: "At length my Dear Marquis I am become a private citizen on the banks of the Potomac, & under the shadow of my own Vine & my own Fig-tree." This phrase occurs at least 11 times in Washington's letters. "And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree" (2 Kings 18:31).
The best place to see the Vine & Fig Tree ideal is in the book of Micah. Here is Micah's prophecy and a few notes about the Biblical worldview Micah presents:
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Micah 4:1-7
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Notes
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Believing this prophecy and working for its fulfillment is what it means to be human. Walking in God's paths and converting aggression and hatred into healing and love is why God put us here.
This is a survey of The Vine & Fig Tree Worldview, as seen through a number of different V&FT websites. Different websites allow us to target different audiences, and traffic to similar-sounding domains can be tracked by the Marketing Department. Vine & Fig Tree has registered over 100 domains.
What is a "worldview?" It's becoming a popular word in some circles. A Worldview is a pair of glasses through which you view the world. It is the foundation upon which you build the structure of your life. It is the grid which filters and sorts billions of facts and makes sense out of life. A worldview can be active or passive, Christian or secular:
Most Christians look forward to Micah's age of peace. Vine and Fig Tree differs from most other Christian organizations in our commitment to bring Micah's "Vine and Fig Tree" prophecy to fulfillment before the Second Coming of Christ. This idea strikes many Christians as heretical -- and many atheists as a delusion. Before they will be ready to be shown how to do so, they need to go through a program to convince them that it is legitimate to try. Accordingly, we have divided this list of V&FT websites into two parts:
Once you accept the goal of working to fulfill Micah's "Vine and Fig Tree" Prophecy, you'll hunger for the tools. But Part 1 is the hardest part. It requires rethinking many old, cherished ideas. Once those ideas have been turned inside out, it is possible to begin developing the skills needed to build on Micah's blueprint.
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Vine and Fig Tree will be considered by most Americans to be a "radical" or "extremist" organization. Sam Adams' call for America to declare independence from Britain was considered by some to be radical and extremist, and many Americans did not actively support it.
Many people who are criticized as "extremists" are justly criticized for supporting a bad idea or cause (e.g., racism, jihad), and doing so in an obnoxious or violent manner. We believe there is no higher, more noble, or more ethical cause than working to bring about Micah's "Vine and Fig Tree" vision, and we are committed to doing so in a logical, winsome, and peaceful manner.
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But those who feel that Vine and Fig Tree is "extremist" are correct, as we'll see below. Let's begin with America's Declaration of Independence. That document declares that there are certain "self evident" truths. Anyone who begins with these self-evident truths and pursues them with any consistency ends up with Micah's "Vine and Fig Tree" vision, as America's Founding Fathers did:
There is nothing more important for any human being than to line up under these self-evident truths. Our conscience tells us about these truths. Atheists are self-contradictory and self-destructive. Tyrants and dictators are dangerous because they seek to suppress these self-evident truths so that they may "be as gods" (Genesis 3:5). And everyone who rejects the grace of God and His atonement through Christ seeks to gain atonement by various degrees of a masochistic self-flagellation or a sadistic scapegoating of others. You can see this in members of your family or church, co-workers at the office, and genocidal extermination by the governments of the earth.
That is why there is a fifth element of the "self-evident truths" articulated by America's Founders:
On TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 1781, "The United States in Congress assembled, agreed to the following proclamation":
The United States in Congress assembled, therefore do earnestly recommend, that Thursday the third day of May next, may be observed as a day of humiliation, fasting and prayer, that we may, with united hearts, confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and by sincere repentance and amendment of life, appease his righteous displeasure, and through the merits of our blessed Saviour, obtain pardon and forgiveness
On MARCH 6, 1799, President John Adams proclaimed a day of fasting and prayer, that Americans would
President Adams proclaimed a day of prayer to this Trinitarian God because "God's invisible attributes," "even His eternal power and Godhead," are "clearly understood through the things that are made," so that atheists "are without excuse." (Romans 1:20) Every human being ever created -- even those in so-called "pagan" lands -- need only take the next step to get back to God. We may not know exactly where that step will eventually lead us, but every human being, created in the Image of God, has a conscience that knows what the next step should be (Romans 2:14-15). This knowledge is often suppressed in favor of selfish and evil lifestyles (Romans 1:18-19). But this knowledge of the Triune God of the Bible is still "self-evident" to every human being.
America was clearly created as a Christian Theocracy.
"Theocracy" is a "self-evident" truth, though the word is passionately hated by many.
The word "theocracy" comes from two Greek words:
If God is over a nation as Ruler or "Supreme Judge," then that nation is "under God." Until very recently, America has always been considered as a nation "under God," which is to say God "rules" over America, which is to say America is a Theo-cracy. Obviously, given the statements of America's Founding Fathers above, America is a Christian Theocracy. More evidence of this is here:
Every nation is a "theocracy," because every nation has laws, and all laws are based on morality, and all morality is based on a religion or "worldview," and the ultimate principle that determines law, morals, and ethics is that system's god. The religion of "Secular Humanism" worships Man. In a "secular" nation, "Man" is god (which usually means "The State" is god or savior).
Secularists want Christians to believe that
Of course, Secular Humanists never ever use the word "theocracy" to describe their own position, only that of the group they want to demonize as the boogey-man or the bad guy. But Secular Humanists want their god (Man) to be the ruler of our nation, rather than the God of the Christian Bible.
Secularists say that those who support "Theocracy" are "extremists." Secularists are against Christian Theocracy, and extremely so. The only people who accomplish anything in this world are "extremists."
As we said above, your worldview is either Christian or non-Christian, active or passive.
So the character and destiny of America is determined by the battle between activist Christian extremists and activist atheist extremists. Lukewarm Christians and atheists will have their lives shaped by the activists.
America was founded by activist Christians. The "self-evident truths" they declare in the Declaration of Independence strike at the heart of the atheist theocracy dreamed of by Secular Humanists. Our defense of these self-evident truths should be whole-hearted, not apathetic. Jesus says those who are not "extremists" -- passionate about these self-evident truths -- are nauseating to Him (Revelation 3:16). Micah's Vine and Fig Tree vision is one of world peace and health, a product of the global worship of Jesus Christ. There's something dysfunctional about a human being who is not fanatically in favor of the end of war and the conditions Micah describes: world salvation. Atheists don't react with alarm at lukewarm Christians who are easily controlled by secularists, but don't like the idea of Christians bringing about the global worship of God. So for the most part, Micah's Vine and Fig Tree vision is either loved or hated. Only the less-than-human are lukewarm.
Vine and Fig Tree is an attempt to secure and pursue these self-evident truths with passion. So that makes us
ChristianExtremists.org, .info
The idea of building a social, political, and intellectual philosophy on The Bible strikes Modern Man as foolish. You probably had a college professor who said, "The Bible is just an archaic collection of contradictions written by primitive peasants who believed in myths and passed these fairy tales down with additional contradictions and mistakes." You may have read some of the recent best-sellers or seen some of the many websites on the Internet which claim that the Bible not only contains examples of violence, but that it defends slavery, oppression, domination, and mass murder. Religion makes the world worse, they say, because it is a defense of non-rational delusions, clerical hypocrisy and the Spanish Inquisition (according to these websites), and only atheistic secularism can create a rational society.
Vine & Fig Tree disagrees with the modern view. Christianity has civilized the barbarians, freed the slaves, opened hospitals, and defended the weak and the poor. Christianity built Western Civilization. Atheism has built gulags, concentration camps, bureaucracies, and other monuments to self-ism and power. As Christians mature and become more like Christ, they become more humane; as atheism becomes more consistent with its own premises, it becomes more tyrannical, destructive, genocidal, even suicidal.
We believe every word in the Bible is the Word of God. We believe God had complete control over the prophets and the authors of the books and letters in the Bible, and they wrote the exact words God wanted to be written. The words communicate absolute truth which mends the torn fabric of life when put into practice. The starting point in every one of the Vine & Fig Tree websites is the Bible.
The Bible is the most significant book in all of human history. Even if you're an atheist you can admit this, if only for the same reason TIME Magazine selected Adolph Hitler as "Man of the Year" in its January 2, 1939 issue, an award given not to the best, but only to the most "significant." The Bible has had more influence on more people, creating more powerful and lasting institutions, than any other book in human history. The Bible is the history and blueprints of Jews, Catholics, Protestants, and thousands of missionaries that have altered governments and shaped the lives of billions of people. More books have been influenced by the Bible than any other book. If you're an atheist, you may not like that influence, but the Bible is more "significant" than any other book.
| Imagine that a UFO landed in front of the White House and a representative of an extraterrestrial race gave the President a book that described in detail the plans this superior race had for the planet earth, and asked the President to decide
whether or not we would cooperate. What a hubbub there would be! CNN and FOX News and all the Networks would have nearly uninterrupted coverage of this event, with 24-7 live remote cams showing the UFO on the White House lawn, continuous reporting on the deliberations in Washington
D.C., unending speculation by the pundits on what the book says, what the President will say in response, what planet the UFO was from, etc., etc., etc. Relentless coverage. All the world would be watching the reports, many people would stay home from work to watch the wall-to-wall
coverage; marriages and vacations would be cancelled to wait for word on the future of the planet -- life on earth would come to a virtual standstill. And yet the mainstream media does not give this kind of attention to a Book that is even more significant than a book from a UFO: a revelation from the Creator Himself, the Lord of all the extraterrestrial planets and galaxies in the Universe. And most Christians give less attention to the Bible than they do to FOX News' coverage of intoxicated Hollywood celebrities. They devote more time each day to reading the sports section of the newspaper than they do the Bible. |
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If you profess that the Bible is actually a revelation from God, then the Bible is more than "significant," it is awe-inspiring evidence of the grace of God. Imagine the Creator of the entire universe sitting down next to you on the front porch, explaining how the world came into being, how it works, and how you can "glorify God and enjoy Him forever."
The average church-goer has not read the Bible from cover-to-cover. This is not consistent with the claim that the Bible is a revelation from the Creator of the universe. How should a Christian treat the Bible? What place should it have in your life? What if today's televangelists have not been accurate in their presentation of the message of the Bible? Shouldn't you find out for yourself what the Bible says? What if kings, popes, inquisitors, and authors have not been consistent with Biblical principles?
On the other hand, what if they were from now on? What if businesses, schools, governments, and the media were to give to the Bible the place it deserves? The primary purpose of Vine & Fig Tree is to bring about a Bible-believing world. That means a Bible-literate world, and a Bible-practicing world.
Most people who say they don't believe the Bible have never read the Bible from cover to cover. Some who love to debate about the Bible have searched through the Bible solely with an eye to discovering "contradictions" and other excuses for not putting themselves under the authority of "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." Morality is the motive. When it comes to the Bible, there is no neutrality.
Even most people who claim to be "bible-believing" Christians have never read the Bible from cover to cover. For both Christians and atheists, we recommend starting here:
"The goal is the developed Kingdom of God, the New Jerusalem, a world order under God's law."
R.J. Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law (Nutley, NJ: Craig Press, 1973), p. 357.
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To "exercise dominion" in a fallen world is to bring every area of life --with its autonomous violence and hatred -- under the dominion of Christ, and the influence of Theonomic love.
How can the world ever be transformed into a Vine & Fig Tree world? Most people can't imagine this, because their God is a small god who lives only "down in my heart," or else their God is big, but lives very far away and never gets involved in our lives here on earth. Many other believe that man's will is "totally depraved," but -- ironically -- God can't violate man's "free will," so the world can only get worse and worse.
Micah's prophecy begins with these words: "It shall come to pass." How does Micah know what will come to pass? How can he be so sure? There are only two possibilities.
- Micah is a good guesser, a clairvoyant, a psychic, or a medium, operating in a random, meaningless or demonic-controlled universe.
- God told Micah what would happen, and God knows because God predestinated the entire history of the universe from beginning to end.
This is a subject that sharply divides many who call themselves Christians.
There have always been many Christians who believe that when the history of this planet and this universe and every individual reaches its conclusion, "every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Romans 14:11-12; Philippians 2:9-11). If God is Sovereign then this prophecy is absolutely true, absolutely guaranteed, and God knows how every molecule in the universe will work toward this goal. If God is not Sovereign, then this prophecy is just a guess, or a wish, and maybe every knee will bow to Satan instead. "Who knows?"
God knows.
Understanding God's Sovereignty is the key to understanding the Bible and growing in obedience to the Bible as God's very Word. It is the key to having faith and being able to persevere in our assignment until we're victorious.
God is the Creator. He created everything that exists. Creation implies predestination. The entire universe, from beginning to end, was predestined; that is, before it was created, it was a plan in the mind of God, who determined that it would come into existence.
Nobody was around when God created the universe. Nobody forced God to create the universe a certain way. God created the universe exactly the way He wanted it, ex nihilo - out of nothing. There was no guess-work involved because God is omniscient (omni-, all; science, knowledge). God created every single molecule in the universe, and there was no other being, force, or "natural law" in the universe to prevent God from creating everything exactly the way He wanted it. A decent computer programmer can tell you what his program will do if you turn on the computer and press a certain button. A bad programmer can only guess what the computer will do. God is more knowledgeable than the best computer programmer. He knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10) because He created the universe to move to that end. God has told us what history will do, because God created history. God created time, space, and matter, exactly the way He wanted it, knowing exactly what would happen because He created it to happen His way. History is His-story.
Nobody can be a prophet unless God tells that prophet what is going to happen (Isaiah 41:22,23; 44:7; 45:21; Daniel 4:35; Proverbs 19:21; Isaiah 43:13). God can tell us what the future holds because God created the past exactly the way He wanted it, so that it would produce exactly the future that God wants (a human way of speaking, since the "past" does not "create" the future, God creates the future). God does what He wants because He created all things and owns all things. God had complete, exhaustive knowledge of everything He created, because everything which can be known was created by God. There are no surprises for God. All of these ideas are summed up in the word "predestination."
There are instances of, I would say, an almost astonishing providence in our favor; our success has staggered our enemies, and almost given faith to infidels; so we may truly say it is not our own arm which has saved us. The hand of Heaven appears to have led us on to be, perhaps, humble instruments and means in the great providential dispensation which is completing. We have fled from the political Sodom; let us not look back lest we perish and become a monument of infamy and derision to the world.
We love because He first loved us.
If the Prophet Micah or the Apostle Paul could sit down with you right now as you're looking at your computer monitor, and you were to explain how the words you're reading began on my keyboard and came to your home, and how interconnected we all are, with computer builders, software designers, phone companies, satellites, cable companies, supplied by trucks, trains, and planes, linking us together, and how America now consists of 300 million people, the majority of whom claim the name of Christ, and how for 200 years Americans are generally able to walk the streets or travel across the country without carrying a sword, and how even the people we call "poor" own television sets, cars, and many own homes which are more luxurious than those owned by kings in Paul's day, and if Micah and Paul could walk down the aisles of your local grocery store, and hear the stories of how all those products got from field and factory to the store, both Micah and Paul would say that Christ has brought about the fulfillment of Micah's prophecy. They would be astounded. They would break down in tears and profusely praise God. We live in truly amazing, wonderful times.
Yet you and I complain a lot. We have so many problems. Millions of people think the fulfillment of Micah's prophecy is hopeless until Christ comes again. Millions of people believe the world is getting worse and worse and Jesus is soon going to "rapture" all the
Christians away and let the planet go the remaining short distance to hell. It is, after all "The
Late Great Planet Earth
There are clearly two very different ways of looking at the world, at life, at progress, and at the future. One view seeks to create heaven on earth (and has done quite well, at least in the eyes of Biblical writers), while the other is content to permit hell on earth, expecting Jesus to give us a new heaven and new earth on a silver platter. This is why it is important to study the Biblical doctrine of dominion and eschatology
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Many Christians do not accept this view of eschatology. They believe the world is getting worse and worse, with the real king, Satan, calling the plays. This demonic quarterback is kicking our team's butt, and our only hope is for Jesus to come soon, to pick up His planetary football and go home. "This was the blessed hope of the early church," they say. A cult called "The Plymouth Brethren" made this view popular only about 200 years ago, and it came to dominate evangelicalism by the 1970's, but after so many followers falsely predicted the Rapture in 1981 (40 years after the formation of the State of Israel in 1948, minus 7 years of Tribulation) and then again in 1988, the view is rapidly losing its most passionate supporters.
This once-popular pessimistic view has been called "pessimillennialism." The fastest growing view of the future, however, might be called "optimillennialism."
Either this happened when Jesus said it would happen, or Jesus was a false prophet.
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Part of the belief that "Jesus is coming soon" is the prediction that evil is getting stronger and stronger, and things are getting "worse and worse" -- a self-fulfilling prophecy, if Christians stop working and start waiting for the Second Coming. Why would you choose to believe that the earth is being surrendered to Satan rather than conquered by Christ? The Bible is not the story of God losing out to Satan and being forced by Satan to destroy the entire planet in frustration. If you wish to believe the more optimistic view, you will find yourself supported by the Bible -- the whole Bible, from cover to cover. Here are places to begin:
Go to "Second American Revolution" Tools
If you think of words like "robber barron" and "exploitation" when you hear the word "capitalism," you're a victim of educational malpractice. You've learned about capitalism from socialists.
Just a few generations ago, the vast majority of human beings lived in poverty. The exceptions were kings and emperors. Today, ordinary people like you and me enjoy wealth which those who lived a couple of centuries ago could not even dream about. It is capitalism which has brought hundreds of millions of human beings out of poverty. The rest of the world -- the world of poverty and disease -- still lives under emperors and despots.
The essence of "capitalism" is private property free from violence. This is also Micah's Vine & Fig Tree ideal: everyone dwelling safely under his vine and fig tree; a vision of private property in a world which has repudiated violence by beating "swords into plowshares."
If you ask most university professors for their feelings about "capitalism," you will get negative reactions. Most Americans sort of grudgingly support capitalism rather than socialism, but very few people consider themselves fanatic supporters of "capitalism," and almost no one supports pure laissez-faire capitalism, with no socialism whatsoever. Nearly everyone believes that capitalists rip off the poor unless bridled by wise and compassionate government politicians (who -- don't reveal the secret! -- are nearly always businessmen or friends of businessmen who do favors for their colleagues and will return to business after their stint in "public service). Many vigorous critics of "capitalism" define capitalism as an exploitative collusion between business and the State. All of these definitions of capitalism come from people who are against freedom and in favor of government planning and regulation.
Every scholar who describes himself as a vigorous defender of capitalism rejects those definitions, and contends that
True capitalism is a social system based on the rejection of the initiation of force or violence against others.
That definition will come as a surprise to most people. Most people are as ignorant about the real meaning of capitalism as they are about the real meaning of the Bible. The Bible is about loving your neighbor, including the poor; it is not about perpetuating clerical hierarchy or "religion." Capitalism is about loving your neighbor (and the poor are the greatest beneficiaries of capitalism); it is not about buttressing the power of corporations or the State.
Many people equate "capitalism" with "competition," which has violent connotations of big business crushing the mom 'n' pop store, management crushing labor, monopolists crushing consumers, the rich crushing the poor, "dog-eat-dog" "law of the jungle." Those who defend capitalism will explain that "competition" really means freedom. If a monopolist is crushing consumers, freedom of competition means I can set up a business to compete with the monopolist, offering consumers a better choice -- without government officials (elected by the monopolist) telling me I can't. "Competition" means the freedom to serve the consumer in more effective ways than the competition. In a world without force or fraud, service is the only way to profit.
"The Invisible Hand" In 1776 Adam Smith wrote Wealth of Nations in which he explained how capitalism creates the wealth of nations. If you're reading these words on a computer monitor or printed out from a personal computer you are wealthy beyond the imagination of every single human being alive in 1776. Yet most people are ignorant of how this extraordinary wealth came into being. They are unable to defend the system that created it. That system is capitalism. Not the visible hand of a dictator or bureaucracy, but the invisible hand of voluntary associations of millions of human beings. Smith said:
Every individual neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our necessities but of their advantages. He is led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.
In God's Providence, voluntary associations and exchanges make the world a better place. When I give you 50 cents for the newspaper you sell, you are not "ripping me off," because I value your newspaper more than I value my 50 cents. Nor am I "ripping you off." You value my 50 cents more than you value your newspaper. Every business deal is a transaction of mutual benefit, and trillions of mutually beneficial transactions take place every day, bettering the world -- as long as the transactions are voluntary and the participants observe "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." A world under God's Law has no need for dictators, czars, bureaucrats, and prime ministers.
The whole world knows that capitalism works and socialism is a failure. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the breakup of the Soviet Union shout this truth across the globe:
And yet, virtually everyone in the United States has been trained in government schools and by a government-dominated media to believe that
This is the same as saying that we must not eliminate all threats of violence and the initiation of force against others. This is a denial of Micah's command to beat swords into plowshares.
Both the Bible and Capitalism are about peace. Most people believe something nearly opposite.
Socialism could never have done these things, so we say to socialists, "Laissez-faire!" Pure laissez-faire capitalism is commerce and society without any regulation, intervention, interference, or any initiation of force by "the State."
Very few have heard of this idea, but it was an influential movement that created "the Religious Right" and helped elect Ronald Reagan, even though Christian Reconstructionism is highly critical of the Religious Right and Reagan's secular conservatism. Christian Reconstructionists proclaim "the crown rights of King Jesus." They argue that it is the moral obligation of Christians to recapture or destroy every institution for Jesus Christ.
The means by which this task will be accomplished is Biblical Law. These are the "tools of dominion." The Christian Reconstruction movement believes that these four doctrines represent consistent Calvinism and the mature thinking of the Protestant Reformation:
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Go to Christian Reconstruction Tools
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The first tool for the fulfillment of Micah's Vine & Fig Tree vision is prayer.
Vine & Fig Tree's prayer page is a daily program of prayer for global Christianization. It follows Q.98 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism:
- Prayer is
- • an offering up of our desires unto God
• for things agreeable to His will,
• in the name of Christ,
• with confession of our sins,
• and thankful acknowledgement of His mercies.
This program dramatically re-orients our focus and opens the channels of God's blessings.
The second tool for the fulfillment of Micah's Vine & Fig Tree vision is our own disciplined character.
"Voting" for the "right" candidate is not the answer. These candidates would have to have developed the character traits required to pursue and fulfill Micah's vision before a Christian could vote for them. But nearly all politicians have been moving in the opposite direction for years, beating plowshares into swords and seducing people away from Micah's "Jerusalem."
If you want to be rewarded by Christ for being a trusty tool for the building of His Kingdom and the fulfillment of Micah's Vine & Fig Tree vision, you have to be sharp and solid. This means developing the character of Christ. All of our daily programs feature a process of character development taken from the Psalms, in which David vows to be useful to God. Christians who are working to fulfill Micah's Vine & Fig Tree vision are working to become:
| Accomplished | Accurate | Alert |
| Amiable | Analytical | Aspiring |
| Available | Bold | Calm |
| Cautious | Charitable | Chaste |
| Cheerful | Compassionate | Composed |
Benjamin Franklin observed, "[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." A world in which property is safe from princes and pirates, with every one dwelling safely under his own Vine & Fig Tree, is a world in which the vast majority have been trained from infancy to live out these character traits. A world in which a majority believe they are not qualitatively different from pigs is a world in which the life and property of human beings is up for grabs, and the grabbers and the grabbees will both cry out for powerful political messiahs to bring them their version of "salvation."
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Since the Bible is foundational, we must learn the Bible.
Capitalism and the Bible: A Parallel. As we have seen, many people think of "capitalism" as a rationalization for the exploitation of the poor by the rich. Most of these people have never read a book about capitalism by someone who defends capitalism (most economics textbooks are written by critics of capitalism, defenders of government planning). Capitalism, as we have seen, means freedom from violence, emphasizing the harmony of interests that exist between people, and pointing to the possibility of peace and prosperity, where the poor are the greatest beneficiaries of the benevolent nature of capitalism. In the same way, people who suspect that capitalism hurts the poor have vague suspicions about the Bible, but have never read the Bible from cover to cover or a defense of the Bible as a blueprint for a non-violent, non-hierarchical society. Most Americans -- even most church-goers -- have gotten their ideas about the Bible from university professors, Hollywood thespians, and the wealthy adult handlers of adolescent rock-stars, all of whom deep-down hate the Bible and capitalism. In V&FT programs you'll find an intelligent, well-documented defense of a libertarian Vine & Fig Tree society.
Most church-goers have never read the Bible from cover to cover. They're acquainted with a few verses, but most of the Bible's pages collect dust. If the Bible is the Word of God, then all of the Bible is important. Most of the Bible is about the conflict between socialism and Vine & Fig Tree-style capitalism. There are whole books in the Bible about governments (Judges, Kings) and most of the Prophets preach against governments. This is certainly an important, if not the dominant theme of the Bible, yet most people assume the Bible is mostly about going to heaven when you die. Vine & Fig Tree offers programs that teach the Bible in a way no one else does, combining a reading of the Bible with a practical, real-world application of its principles, including examples of application by America's Founding Fathers, the Puritans, the Reformers, and Christians during the so-called "Dark Ages" (which weren't "dark" at all). These programs offer insight into the Bible unlike anything you'll get from either end of the spectrum. These programs encourage and empower you to help create a Vine & Fig Tree society.
Here's how we do it: