Page xi: What fundamentalists want is a watered-down gospel message suitable for children, and only for children. The problem is, children grow up. What do you tell a newly converted adult when he asks the question, "All right, I have accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Now what do I do?" The modern fundamentalist says all he has to do is tell someone else about what just happened to him. Then that person can tell another, and so on, until the Rapture ends the whole process.
Correction: According to Gary North, first century Christians were wrong.
Acts 8:4-5 Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them.
Page xi: Modern fundamentalism looks at the gospel as if it were some kind of gigantic chain letter scheme. Nothing is of value in God's sight, they say, except keeping the chain letter alive. But the gospel is not a chain letter. It is the good news that Jesus has overcome this world.
Correction: The gospel or good news is specifically about Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you; unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
Page xii: The Church is the primary administrator of the Great Commission, for it alone controls lawful access to the sacraments. The family is the primary covenantal agency through which the dominion covenant is to be extended. The family supports the local church financially in most cases, except when there is an emergency for a particular family. The Church is not equipped, as a non-profit institution, to initiate projects under the dominion covenant.
Correction: Christians are commanded individually to be witnesses for Jesus Christ.
Acts 1:8 "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
Note: The function of the church is for teaching, fellowship, communion, and for group prayers.
Acts 2:42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Page xiii: We preach the centrality of the Church. But we also preach that there is whole world to bring under God's righteous rule.
Correction: True Christians will preach the person of Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 1:22-24 For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Page xiii: Christianity is the alternative to both the power religion and the escape religion. It teaches the whole Bible, which includes the dominion covenant. It preaches restoration with God, meaning the restoration of man's law-governed authority over the whole world.
Correction: True Christians will preach the person of Jesus Christ.
Acts 3:19-21 "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began."
Page xiv: This is why the Great Commission was given: to enable mankind to return to faithful service under God and over the creation. God's salvation brings us back to the original task: to exercise dominion to the glory of God, in terms of His Bible-revealed law.
Correction: True Christians will be servants not masters during the church age.
Matthew 20:25-28 But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
Page xiv: In this book, he provides many of the footnotes and Bible references that he had to skip over in his original essay. This is a scholarly treatment of the subject, although it is eminently readable. It is comprehensive - so much so, that I do not expect pietists to reply to it. It will silence them. It presents Christian activists with their God-given marching orders. Pietists of all eschatological views will continue to define God's kingdom narrowly enough to match their visions, and they will achieve successes of comparable magnitude, as always.
Note: Gary North has no respect for people who study their Bibles and love Jesus Christ.
Pietism defined: A 17th century religious movement originating in Germany in reaction to formalism and intellectualism and stressing Bible study and personal religious experience.