{"id":312,"date":"2017-05-21T19:04:25","date_gmt":"2017-05-21T23:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/?p=312"},"modified":"2017-05-24T12:01:24","modified_gmt":"2017-05-24T16:01:24","slug":"5-points-of-intersection_p5b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/index.php\/2017\/05\/21\/5-points-of-intersection_p5b\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Points of Intersection Between Postmillennialism and Apologetics \u2013 Point 5b"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"New<\/a>

New Atlantis<\/em> illustration by Lowell Hess<\/p><\/div>\n

Point 5 (continued):\u00a0 Postmillennialism was an important influence in the Scientific Revolution.<\/strong>\u00a0 Postmillennialism supports the argument for the Christian basis for science since postmillennialism was an important influence in the Scientific Revolution.<\/p>\n

The founder of British empiricism and experimentation, Francis Bacon (1561-1626), concluded his famous book on experimental method, Novum Organum<\/em>, by saying:<\/p>\n

For man, by the fall, fell at the same time from his state of innocency and from his dominion over creation. Both of these losses however can even in this life be in some part repaired; the former by religion and faith, the latter by arts and sciences.\u00a0 For creation was not by the curse made altogether and for ever a rebel, but in virtue of the charter, \u2018In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,\u2019 it is now by various labours (not certainly by disputation or magical ceremonies, but by various labours) at length and in some measure subdued to the supplying of man with bread; that is, to the uses of human life.[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

Novum Organum<\/em> was included in a larger work that Bacon titled Instauratio Magna<\/em>, meaning the Great Restoration, referring to the restoring of Edenic peace and prosperity throughout the world with the help of the new experimental method of science.\u00a0 Historian Charles Webster writes that \u201cBacon became the most important philosophical and scientific authority of the Puritan Revolution.\u201d[2]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0Bacon rejected the Aristotelian\/Thomistic philosophy that short-circuited rigorous experimentation by a method in which \u201cone hurries on rapidly from the senses and particulars to the most general axioms.\u201d[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Likewise, the Puritans of the English Puritan Revolution rejected the Roman Catholic traditions such as monastic contemplation of the pagan Aristotle\u2019s philosophy in favor of the holy labor of transforming the physical world into a more just and prosperous place for the glory of God and the benefit of mankind. \u00a0Bacon wrote a utopian novel titled New Atlantis<\/em> about an island where only devout Christians were allowed to step ashore and where the main activity on the island was a comprehensive scientific research institution with the purpose of producing useful inventions to make labor easier, increase food production, and prolong human life.\u00a0 The scientific institution was called Solomon\u2019s House, named after King Solomon, whose God-given wisdom included a broad knowledge of biology:\u00a0 \u201cHe spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish\u201d (1 Kings 4:33).\u00a0 Bacon\u2019s Solomon House inspired Puritans to form scientific societies, ultimately resulting in the famous Royal Society of London, of which Sir Isaac Newton was a famous member.[4]<\/a>\u00a0 The second charter of the Royal Society established its purpose as \u201cthe study of natural things and useful arts by experimental science more faithfully promoted to the glory of God the Creator and for application to the good of mankind.\u201d[5]<\/a>\u00a0 While having his greatest impact in Britain, Bacon also inspired the founding of scientific societies in other European nations, such as France and Italy.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

Samuel Hartlib (1600-1662), an emigrant from Polish Prussia to England, was one of the leading intellectuals of the age, an ardent follower of Bacon, and a passionate postmillennialist.\u00a0 He, along with many other Puritans, promoted the evangelism of Jews in order to hasten the Apostle Paul\u2019s prediction that their conversion would be \u201clife from the dead\u201d compared to prior world history (Rom. 11:15), i.e. usher in the greatest prosperity and peace of the Millennium.\u00a0 Hartlib remarked that \u201cThe world may not expect any great happiness before the conversion of the Jews be first accomplished.\u201d[7]<\/a>\u00a0 He established a network of correspondence to organize, encourage, and disseminate scientific discoveries. \u00a0One of the books he coordinated for publication was entitled, A free discovery of the true, lawful, holy, and divine expedient for the propagation of the gospel, and establishment of an universal peace all over the world,<\/em> by the scientist John Beale, because, as Hartlib wrote to Robert Boyle, the book\u2019s purpose \u201cis most professedly to propagate religion and to endeavor the reformation of the whole world.\u201d[8]<\/a> \u00a0The Hartlib Circle refers to all of those within his sphere of influence, which were nearly all the Baconian, scientifically-minded intellectuals of Britain plus many on the continent.\u00a0 Samuel Hartlib, John Dury (1596-1680), known as the father of the modern library, and John Comenius (1592-1670), known as the father of modern education, entered into a famous \u201cfraternal pact devoutly entered into in the sight of God for mutual advancement in the promotion of the public good of the Christian Religion.\u201d[9]<\/a>\u00a0 Historian Hugh-Trevor Roper calls the three men \u201cthe philosophers of the Puritan Revolution.\u201d[10]<\/a><\/p>\n

John Comenius (or Jan Komensk\u00fd) was from modern-day Czechoslovakia and served there as a bishop of the Unity of the Brethren church, which taught a postmillennial eschatology and was founded on the teachings of Czech reformer Jan Hus.\u00a0 Comenius was invited to England in 1641 by Hartlib to establish a college based on his educational methods.\u00a0 He left shortly after that when civil war broke out, but his writings continued to be very influential throughout England, the continent, and even America, where he was invited to serve as president of Harvard, although he turned down the offer in favor of writing textbooks for Swedish schools.\u00a0 Comenius taught that through increased knowledge and better teaching of knowledge, humanity can gain back much of what was lost by the Fall:\u00a0 \u201cAll men therefore should be taught to know and understand things rightly, and they will easily learn also to use them rightly.\u00a0 Thereby it will come to pass that paradise lost is regained, that is to say, that the entire world will be a garden of delight for God, for people, and for things.\u201d[11]<\/a>\u00a0 He believed that, given the progress of the Protestant Reformation, such a golden age was not far off:\u00a0 \u201c[T]he intellectual light of souls, namely Wisdom, may now at length at the approach of this eventide of the world be happily diffused through all minds and among all people.\u201d[12]<\/a><\/p>\n

A major component of the Puritan Revolution was the reformation of education.\u00a0 Webster writes that \u201cThe reformers regarded educational reconstruction as a necessary prerequisite for the creation of the millennial state.\u201d[13]<\/a>\u00a0 Comenius, Hartlib, and the other Puritans pushed for universal education, instruction in the common vernacular rather than exclusively Latin, and for replacing the emphasis on Aristotle\u2019s writings with a focus on mathematics, science, and technology \u2013 what we call the STEM curriculum today (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).<\/p>\n

John Dury writes in the dedication to Gerard Boate\u2019s Ireland\u2019s Natural History<\/em> (1652) that the acceleration of scientific knowledge at that time indicated that the Biblical prophecies of a golden age could be fast approaching:<\/p>\n

There great and mighty Changes, which God is making in the Earth, do tend to break the yokes of Vanity, and to weaken the Power, which hath wreathed the same upon the necks of the Nations, these Changes seem to me to presage the near approaches of this Liberty, and the advancement of the ways of Learning, whereby the Intellectual Cabinets of Nature are opened, and the effects thereof discovered, more fully to us, that to former Ages, seem in like manner to prepare a plainer Address unto the right use thereof for us than our forefathers have had: which will be effectual to the manifestation of Gods Wisdom, Power, and Goodness, when the great promises shall be accomplished, that the Earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea, & that we shall be taught of God, from the least to the greatest (Isa. 11:9, Heb. 8.11).[14]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the preface to Micrographia<\/em>, one of two of the first publications of the Royal Society, Robert Hooke wrote that \u201cThe only way which now remains for us to recover some degree of those former perfections, seems to be by rectifying the operations of the Sense, the Memory, and Reason.\u201d\u00a0 The way to recover these faculties to some degree is \u201cfrom the real, the mechanical, the experimental philosophy.\u201d[15]<\/a>\u00a0 He referred specifically to the telescope and microscope as mechanical means to rectify the senses.\u00a0 Hooke\u2019s views reflect the view that Adam had extraordinary powers of sight that were lost at the Fall.\u00a0 As mentioned before, some like Boyle questioned whether Adam really had possessed these extraordinary powers of sense, but just the same, they saw the potential for an advance in the welfare of human civilization through these experimental instruments and Bacon\u2019s experimental method.<\/p>\n

John Beale (1608-1683), an early fellow of the Royal Society, who wrote the above-mentioned book promoted by Hartlib, also wrote that “we may be restored to paradise on Earth” by \u201cscripture, reason and experience.\u201d[16]<\/a> \u00a0He says that \u201cthe renewal, or restauration of others, and the advancement of all kinds of knowledge which hath already brake forth may raise our expectation of more than a restauration to that natural perfection, which hath been since the fall of Adam.\u201d[17]<\/a>\u00a0 Beale envisioned a time when efficiency of land use would advance to such a degree that around every person\u2019s house would be planted a large variety of useful timber and fruit-bearing plants, because \u201cthen will all passengers confess and admire it, as a Land of Blessings, in which the Original Curse is reversed, to whom God has given the wisdom to dress the wilderness into a paradise.\u201d[18]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 John Wilkins (1614-1672), a founding member of the Royal Society, encouraged technological innovation because by it \u201cMen do naturally attempt to restore themselves from the first General Curse inflicted upon their Labours.\u201d[19]<\/a><\/p>\n

Puritans called the confusion of languages at Babel \u201cthe second General Curse,\u201d and there were attempts by Puritans to overcome that curse as well.\u00a0 Some tried to find the common language used prior to Babel.\u00a0 Upon running into dead ends with that search, others tried to compose a universal language for use by scholars, politicians, and international businessmen that would more precisely describe the material world and avoid the arbitrary features of Latin grammar.\u00a0 Robert Boyle was a close associate of Hartib\u2019s.\u00a0 He was one of those who expressed hope in formulating a universal language because \u201cit will in good part make amends to mankind for what their pride lost them at the tower of Babel.\u201d[20]<\/a><\/p>\n

Because the Puritans took seriously the longer life spans for humans taught in Isaiah, they saw medical improvements as an important part of the progress of Christ\u2019s kingdom. Medical practitioner George Starkey (1628\u20131665) put medical knowledge second only to saving knowledge of Christ:<\/p>\n

Now next unto that knowledge which is indeed life eternal, namely to know God the only true God, and whom he hath sent Jesus Christ; which knowledge is of everlasting concernment: the most noble is that which discovers the Creators wisdom in the Creatures, so as to be able distinguish their natures and properties, and to apply them to the use of Man, namely, to the restoring of the defects of decaying Nature, and the overcoming of Diseases.[21]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Several recent writers have emphasized that the source of the modern idea of social and scientific progress was the biblical teaching of linear time, which contributed to technological advances during the Middle Ages.[22]<\/a>\u00a0 The linear view of time replaced the idea of cyclical time found in all the ancient pagan cultures.\u00a0 According to the cyclical-time view, there are periods of social improvement, but decline and destruction inevitably follow, and this cycle repeats forever.\u00a0 The futility of this view is like the myth of Sisyphus, condemned by the gods to roll a boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down in a cycle repeated for all eternity.\u00a0 A cyclical view of time is behind the idea of reincarnation.\u00a0 But the Bible teaches that Christ \u201chas appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. \u00a0And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time.\u201d (Heb. 9:26-28).<\/p>\n

The postmillennial eschatology of the Puritan Revelation was belief in linear time on steroids.\u00a0 Not only are events like Christ\u2019s sacrifice and the Final Judgment unrepeatable, there is progress in knowledge and ethics as part of the advance of the kingdom of God on earth prior to the Final Judgment.\u00a0 Gradually, like the growth of a mustard seed and the spread of leaven through dough (Matt. 13:31-33), all nations are taught to obey Christ (Matt. 28:19-20), the meek inherit the earth (Matt. 5:5), and \u201cthey shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest\u201d (Heb. 8:11). \u00a0The effects of the Puritan belief in progress can be seen today as our culture\u2019s motivation for seeking new scientific advances, even after the Reformation faith that birthed it has been exiled from public life for over a hundred years.\u00a0\u00a0 If secularism continued to carry out the ideas implicit in its presuppositions, it would eventually return to the pig sty of cyclical time and abandon its faith in scientific progress.[23]<\/a>\u00a0 But if postmillennialism is what Scripture teaches, the modern decline of public acceptance of Christianity can only be a temporary anomaly in the general trend toward gradually greater and greater victory of Christ\u2019s rule over the earth prior to His Second Coming.\u00a0\u00a0 The Puritans of the English Puritan Revolution were overly optimistic about how quickly progress would happen, at least one the moral front \u2013 they might be impressed by our scientific advances.\u00a0 But if Scripture is the final authority, and if Scripture teaches that Christ\u2019s kingdom will expand to fill the earth prior to Christ\u2019s Second Coming, then no amount of current bad news can overturn the fact that the predictions given in the Bible will come true eventually.<\/p>\n

No more than the pre-Fall teaching on marriage became annulled after the Fall (Gen. 1:27, 2:23-24; Matt. 19:4-6) did the pre-Fall command for man to rule over God\u2019s creation (Gen. 1:26-28) become annulled after the Fall.\u00a0 Man was created for dominion, and we will either rule the earth in obedience to God, rule the earth in rebellion against God, or try to abdicate our responsibility in ascetic withdrawal from the world in rebellion against God.\u00a0 The added factor after the Fall is that we have to battle sin as we carry out God\u2019s command to rule creation.\u00a0 The Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20) to disciple the nations is the Genesis Dominion Command renewed for the post-Fall world under the resurrected Messiah\u2019s reign, who is the Second Adam (Rom. 5) who restores the image of God\u00a0 in man (Col. 3:10) so that man can effectively pursue his creational calling for exercising dominion over the earth under God\u2019s authority.[24]<\/a>\u00a0 Thus victory of Christ\u2019s kingdom on earth includes progress in scientific knowledge and technological innovation.\u00a0 And it is this belief that played a significant role in producing the Scientific Revolution.\u00a0 This should do a great deal to deflate the false pride of modern atheists who equate science and progress with atheism.\u00a0 The historical argument that Christian beliefs produced the Scientific Revolution, along with the philosophical argument that the truth of the Christian worldview is necessary for the possibility of science, produces an apologetic program that should, and eventually will by the power of the Holy Spirit, win the argument against unbelief in every corner of the globe.[25]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a>\u00a0 Bacon, Novum Organum<\/em>, Book II, \u00a7LII.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a>\u00a0 See Charles Webster, The Great Instauration: Science, Medicine and Reform, 1626-1660<\/em> (London: \u00a0Duckworth, 1975), p. 25.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Frances Bacon, Novum Organum, <\/em>Book I, \u00a7XIX.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a>\u00a0 Webster, The Great Instauration<\/em>, p.503.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a>\u00a0 Thomas Birch, The History of the Royal Society of London<\/em>, Vol. 1 (London, 1756), p. 221.\u00a0 On the Royal Society and earlier scientific organizations, see Webster, The Great Instauration<\/em>.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a>\u00a0 Harrison, The Fall of Man and the Foundations of Science<\/em>, p. 183.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a>\u00a0 John Crossley, Ed., The Diary and Correspondence of John Worthington<\/em> (Chetham Society, 1847), series XIII, vol. I, p. 250, https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/diarycorresponde113manc<\/a>.\u00a0 Also see Yosef Kaplan, \u201cJews and Judaism in the Hartlib Circle,\u201d Studia Rosenthaliana<\/em>, Vol. 38\/39, 2005\/2006, http:\/\/pluto.huji.ac.il\/~kaplany\/hartlib.pdf<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a>\u00a0 Quoted in Webster, The Great Instauration<\/em>, p. 87, from letter from Hartlib to Boyle 15 Nov. 1659, https:\/\/www.hrionline.ac.uk\/hartlib\/view?docset=additional&docname=BOYLE_37&term0=dating_1659&term1=dating_november&term2=dating_15#highlight<\/a>. .<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a>\u00a0 \u201cPact Signed By Dury, Comenius And Hartlib, And Later By William Hamilton, English Translation Of Original Latin\u201d (3\/13 March 1642), https:\/\/www.hrionline.ac.uk\/hartlib\/view?docset=additional&docname=7E_109T<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a>\u00a0 H.R. Trevor-Roper, \u201cThree Foreigners and the Philosophy of the English Revolution,\u201d Encounter<\/em> (Feb. 1960), http:\/\/www.unz.org\/Pub\/Encounter-1960feb-00003<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 Quoted by David Parry in \u201cExile, Education and Eschatology in the Works of Jan Amos Comenius and John Milton,\u201d in Religious Diaspora in Early Modern Europe<\/em>, Ed. Timothy G. Fehler, et al. (Pickering & Chatto, 2014), p. 54.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a>\u00a0 Ibid., p. 56.<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a>\u00a0 Webster, The Great Instauration<\/em>, p. 114.<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a>\u00a0 From \u201cThe Hartlib Papers,\u201d\u00a0 https:\/\/www.hrionline.ac.uk\/hartlib\/view?docset=pamphlets&docname=pam_43<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[15]<\/a>\u00a0 Quoted in Harrison, The Fall of Man and the Foundations of Science<\/em>, p. 200.<\/p>\n

[16]<\/a>\u00a0 Letter, John Beale To Hartlib, June 12, 1658,<\/p>\n

[17]<\/a>\u00a0 Letter, John Beale, \u201cTract On Eleutheropolis,\u201d Dec. 14, 1658.<\/p>\n

[18]<\/a>\u00a0 John Beale, quoted in Webster, The Great Instauration<\/em>, p. 482.<\/p>\n

[19]<\/a>\u00a0 John Wilkins, Mathematicall magick<\/em> (1691), p. 2.<\/p>\n

[20]<\/a>\u00a0 Robert Boyle, Letter to Samuel Hartlib, March 19, 1646\/7, Works<\/em>, I, xxxvii.<\/p>\n

[21]<\/a>\u00a0 George Starkey, Natures Explication and Helmonts Vindication<\/em> (London, 1657), p. 4.<\/p>\n

[22]<\/a>\u00a0 See Stanley\u00a0Jaki,\u00a0Science and Creation:\u00a0\u00a0From\u00a0Eternal Cycles to an Oscillating Universe<\/em>\u00a0(Edinburgh:\u00a0 Scottish Academic Press, 1974); Thomas Cahill,\u00a0The Gifts of the Jews:\u00a0 How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels<\/em>, (New York, NY:\u00a0 Nan A. Talese, 1998); Frances and Joseph\u00a0Gies,\u00a0Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages<\/em>\u00a0(New York: Harper Collins, 1994).<\/p>\n

[23]<\/a>\u00a0 An example of this happening is the teaching of Nietzsche, who promoted belief in cyclical time:\u00a0 Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science<\/em>, tr. Walter Kaufman (New York:\u00a0 Vintage Books, 1974), pp. 273-74 (\u00a7 341).\u00a0 Gary North\u00a0argues that, given Marx\u2019s godless worldview, Marx provides no reason for his economic stages not to fall back to an earlier stage of economic alienation so that the stages repeat in eternal cycles.\u00a0 Marx\u2019s Religion of Revolution:<\/em> Regeneration Through Chaos<\/em> (Tyler, TX:\u00a0 ICE, 1989), pp. 87-89,170.\u00a0 Marx, of course, was strongly influenced in his idea of historical progress by Hegel, who was strongly influenced in his idea of historical progress by the heretical Lutheran Jakob B\u00f6hme, whose influences gets us back to more traditional Christian thought.<\/p>\n

[24]<\/a>\u00a0 David Chilton,\u00a0Paradise Restored:\u00a0\u00a0An Eschatology of Dominion<\/em><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0(Tyler, TX: Reconstruction Press, 1985); Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.,\u00a0The Greatness of the Great Commission<\/em><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0(Tyler, TX: ICE, 1990).<\/p>\n

[25]<\/a>\u00a0 For the philosophical argument, see my essay, \u201cChristian Civilization is the Only Civilization \u2013 In a Sense, of Course,\u201d http:\/\/www.christianciv.com\/ChristCivEssay.htm<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Point 5 (continued):\u00a0 Postmillennialism was an important influence in the Scientific Revolution.\u00a0 Postmillennialism supports the argument for the Christian basis for science since postmillennialism was an important influence in the Scientific Revolution. The founder of British empiricism and experimentation, Francis … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317,"href":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions\/317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}