

Kinism: The One and the Many This piece is authored by my friend DanielJ, who is someone I am proud to say I have met and like, and regard as a brother in the cause if not, as he might regard me despite myself, in Christ (or perhaps he wouldn’t!) The article appeared yesterday in the Summer 2010 edition of The Kinist Review.

GW KINISM:THE ONE AND THE MANY DanielJ And He has made all nations of men of one blood to dwell on all the face of the earth, ordaining fore-appointed seasons and boundaries of their dwelling … (Act 17:26) Adam was created directly by God in the express image and likeness of God. The Godhead conspired to create, and after naming man, declared that the express purpose in their creation of man was the ruling, classifying, dominance and administration of creation. Although God created man in His own image and His own likeness, Adam has left to us—his children—a legacy of death and a fallen nature. After the fall, Adam and Eve gave birth to children that were born in their own image and in their own totally depraved likeness rather than the direct likeness and image of God. This is an account of the births of Adam: In the day of God’s preparing man, in the likeness of God He hath made him; a male and a female He hath prepared them, and He blesseth them, and calleth their name Man, in the day of their being prepared. And Adam liveth an hundred and thirty years, and begetteth a son in his likeness, according to his image, and calleth his name Seth. (Gen 5:1-3) We are, therefore, born into a covenant of death under a covenant head who has passed unto to us nothing but sin, death, and decay. We are all, by virtue of this inheritance, corrupt and headed for perdition. We, the many, of every tribe on Earth, are of the Adamic kind and in need of the one—represented in Scripture by Seth—to save us from our sins. Scripture tells us of the battle between these two seeds: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He will bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” (Gen 3:15) Furthermore, Scripture states: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone having been hanged on a tree”); so that the blessing of Abraham might be to the nations in Jesus Christ, and that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Brothers, I speak according to man, a covenant having been ratified, even among mankind, no one sets aside or adds to it. And to Abraham and to his Seed the promises were spoken. It does not say, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, “And to your Seed,” which is Christ. (Gal 3:13-16) This is the universal human legacy, bequeathed to us by our common ancestor: spiritual warfare fought, by proxy, through human beings and human bloodlines. Still, the fact remains that God is no respecter of persons and we are all unrighteous in His sight and we all, who are elect, undeservedly receive mercy and grace from His hand. The Law says to us: You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them. For I Jehovah your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and fourth generation of those that hate me, and showing mercy to thousands of those that love Me and keep My commandments. (Exo 20:5-6) There is, therefore, a human race that is unified by a depraved descent, a depravity so total that the race is without the capacity to perceive its state and without the faculties or ability to change its miserable condition. However, there is - within the human race - also particular individuals, some of which are destined for eternal life. What we have learned so far about humanity stands as a perfect example for us of the problem that philosophers call the one over many. The Medieval Schoolmen referred to this as the problem of universals. There is, with respect to humanity, a God-given unity in our race; a unity that allows us to predicate things about the entire race. The human kind is composed of individual beings that are genuinely participate in a larger, broader group, circumscribed in its entirety by the traits it received from Adam. What we are able to predicate about our covenant head - what is universal to the human kind - we gather from what the Scriptures say, or predicate about Adam. Adam is the one that resides atop the many. Nevertheless, the essence of humanity cannot itself be either entirely universal or entirely particular. If universality were an essential part of human nature then a particular individual could never fully exemplify it, and, if human nature were particularity, then there could be no universal nature to speak of. That is to say, human beings participate in a shared essence, but they are not a seamless monolith. This fact is the basis for the non-Scriptural, philosophical warrant for consideration of human kind as an organic whole composed of organic, tribal parts. The Kinist believes that a human being participates in a general human nature by his identification with a tribal particularity because he cannot perfectly exemplify particularity individually - by doing so, he would cease to participate in a shared essence - he cannot perfectly exemplify universality individually - by doing so, he would invalidate his individuality. Therefore, consideration of the human race as a tribally subdivided composite maintains the essential dialectical tension of the concept of humanity and enables predication about individual human beings - and groups of humans - that is truthful and rational. We have Scriptural warrant, by deduction from the genetic lineages that feature prominently in the first chapters of the book of Genesis, for this same truth as it is stated above. Adam’s progeny immediately begin differentiation - a kind of speciation - into the many tribes whose stories and characteristics are recounted for us in the opening chapters of Genesis. Cain and Abel took up differing professions and inherited different personalities and traits and represent, for us, variation amongst the human kind, that draws into sharp relief the perennial philosophical problem of the West. Cain’s descendants also go on to divide in the same fashion, yet somehow, remain of Cain. The one constantly and endlessly seems to procreate and divide into the many without a complete severance. The Scriptures declare plainly this truth to us when they state that everything produces after its kind. Cornelius Van Til has said of the problem under consideration that, “The whole problem of knowledge has constantly been that of bringing the one and the many together.” The history of Western philosophy generally testifies to the accuracy of this assertion. We are chiefly concerned, as Kinists, about how this problem relates to theology, and more specifically, to theo-philosophic anthropology. We believe that God - His Law - must rule every aspect of our lives, even down to features of demography that modern man considers merely accidental, inessential, and mutable in humanity. We do not believe that modern man adequately and righteously addresses this question and that he sinfully responds to God’s demands in this area in various ways. The modern “left” rejects God’s word to us in this regard by irrational revelry in and exuberant glorification of particularity. This position is summed up adequately in their slogan: “Celebrate Diversity.” Like all human beings that labor in willful rebellion against God, they are inconsistent. They generally seek to maintain that despite the vast diversity of the human race, we are fundamentally the same. They know that there is a one over many problem and they side with the many. The modern right - “conservatives” is what they are generally, but erroneously called - responds to the problem in an equally sinful way from another direction. They insist that what is fundamental and unifying about man be exalted. They worship abstractions - principles like freedom and unrestrained commercialism - and seek to mute the particular through insistence on a higher-order predication about mankind that does not manifest itself in the particulars. Their creed is summed up adequately in the doctrines of classical republicanism, a tradition with deep roots and adherents of towering intellectual stature, who are nevertheless as lost as their idiotic counterparts on the “left.” Neither side in the debate recognizes that the essential feature of the Adamic kind is unrighteousness. The grand, unifying feature of human nature is its inclination to rebellion. The two traditions are reduced to complete absurdity in the synthesis that is Babylonian America. They’ve come to simultaneous fruition in the neo-liberal and neo-conservative movements: a militaristic, materialistic, consumerist, hedonistic glorification of a shopping mall existence that insists above all on the tearing down of the ancient landmarks and a orderless, borderless, directionless earth populated chiefly by Epicurean libertines. What is the response of the Kinist to this utter madness? Our refrain is that God has established the borders of our habitations and that His Law is His Word to us and that it should be established as the standard and rule of all human activity. God insists this is the case and requires nothing less of our kind. God requires that human kind hold the one and many in dialectical tension. As Kinists we humbly acknowledge that there is no neutrality available to man and that there is no adiophoratic retreat where we may not consider the whole counsel of God. In short, we have theonomy or autonomy in all areas of our lives, including political demography. The solution to the problem is contained in our presuppositional starting point. As Christians, and Kinists, we must presuppose the ontological trinity as our starting point. Turning again to Van Til we read: If we hold with Paul (Rom. 11:36) that “of him and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever,” we see clearly that the existence and meaning of every fact in this universe must in the last analysis be related to the self-conscious and eternally self-subsistent God of the Scriptures. Applying this to the question of man’s knowledge of facts, it may be said that for the human mind to know any fact truly, it must presuppose the existence of God and his plan for the universe. If we wish to know the facts of this world, we must relate these facts to laws. That is, in every knowledge transaction, we must bring the particulars of our experience into relation with universals. So, for instance, we speak of the phenomena of physics as acting in accordance with the laws of gravitation. We may speak of this law of gravitation as a universal. In a similar way, if we study history instead of nature, that is, if we study the particulars of this world as they are related to one another in time as well as in space, we observe certain historical laws. But the most comprehensive interpretation that we can give of the facts by connecting the particulars and the universals that together constitute the universe leaves our knowledge at loose ends, unless we may presuppose God back of this world. It is of the greatest moment to make clear that the ultimate subject of our predication is not the universe, reality, or being in general, in which God is the universal, and historical facts are the particulars. If such were the case, God and the universe would be correlative to one another. And it is precisely in order to set off the Christian position against such correlativism that the equal ultimacy of the one and the many within the Godhead, prior to and independent of its relation to the created universe, must be presupposed. As Christians, we hold that in this universe we deal with a derivative one and many, which can be brought into fruitful relation with one another because, back of both, we have in God the original one and many. If we are to have coherence in our experience, there must be a correspondence of our experience to the eternally coherent experience of God. Human knowledge ultimately rests upon the internal coherence within the Godhead; our knowledge rests upon the ontological Trinity as its presupposition. The Kinist understands that the human race is a reflection - a derivative - of the one and many that exists eternally inside the Godhead. The non-Christian takes the position that we observe directly the only one and many by our sense experience rather than indirectly by derivation from the eternal and necessary one and many contained within the ontological Trinity. He has no God to presuppose back of this world and consequently his worldview reduces to absurdity and irrelevance. The non-Christian seeks, therefore, to eliminate the tension that is extant in the universe - by the very nature of the ontological trinity - by creating an alternative presuppositional starting point. The non-Christian seeks to account for the amazing diversity of the universe, naturalistically, by resort to a common ancestor for all living things and by simultaneously embracing the unity and diversity of all living things destroying the possibility of predication in the process. The many simply springs forth from the one in a miraculous and irrational fashion in the mind of the non-Christian. He can give no true account of the universe this way. Having established the nature of humanity, Kinists presuppose, along with Paul, that God has righteously made many nations out of one blood, that these nations represent another derivative one and many, and that these racial distinctions are bound up within the very ordo salutis. The passage in question goes on to state: “to seek the Lord, if perhaps they might feel after Him and find Him, though indeed He is not far from each one of us.” -implying that the division of the races is a providential necessity which God has instituted in His plan of salvation. We find abundant evidence in the Scriptures that this is indeed the case from the initial division of the tribes of man found in the book of Genesis (Gen 10:32 “These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations. And from these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.“) to the glorification of all the believers of all tribes that occurs in Revelation. The Kinist insists that we not join together what God has separated. God declares that we acknowledge this reality in our missions: Having established the nature of humanity, Kinists presuppose, along with Paul, that God has righteously made many nations out of one blood, that these nations represent another derivative one and many, and that these racial distinctions are bound up within the very ordo salutis. The passage in question goes on to state that “to seek the Lord, if perhaps they might feel after Him and find Him, though indeed He is not far from each one of us”, implying that the division of the races is a providential necessity which God has instituted in His plan of salvation. We find abundant evidence in the Scriptures that this is indeed the case from the initial division of the tribes of man found in the book of Genesis (Gen 10:32 “These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations. And from these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.“) to the glorification of all the believers of all tribes that occurs in Revelation. The Kinist insists that we not join together what God has separated. God declares that we acknowledge this reality in our missions: And He said to them, so it is written, and so it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be proclaimed in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. (Luk 24:46-48) And also: And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, all authority is given to Me in Heaven and in earth. Therefore go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things, whatever I commanded you. And, behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the world. Amen. (Mat 28:18-20) The preached word is to be declared to the nations. Many are called in this fashion and of them, God has chosen some individuals. Although salvation occurs in specific individuals, the Lord deals with us in a corporate (through the visible church) and tribal (by acknowledging the reality of tribe) fashion and the Scriptures reflect this fact. The Lord doesn’t instruct us to invite all nations to come and hear but to go to all nations and preach and make disciples. The Lord also says in the Psalms that it is the nations that rage! We also know from the Scriptures that we participate in the universal human kind through this other-than-universal—derivative—kind; our race, our tribe, our nation. There is a natural harmony that humanity resonates at when we adhere properly to our God-given boundaries, boundaries that are more than territorial and deeper than mere resource competition. The Scriptures say of Cain—a type representing reprobate man—that he dwelt in the Land of Nod. The word Nod means vagrancy, wandering and exile. How do we reconcile this with the simple fact that Cain was a builder of a city? Cain, paradoxically, had roots in the land of exile. He immediately set to work to building a city in a land away from the presence of God. City building is the sin of the Babylonian: And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. And it happened, as they traveled from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar. And they lived there. And they said to one another, Come, let us make brick and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, Come, let us build us a city and a tower, and its top in the heavens. And let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered upon the face of the whole earth. And Jehovah came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of Adam had built. (Gen 11:1-5) This Babylon prefigures the modern megalopolis. This is humanity as it now exists in America, a dissonant and unsettled human arrangement. It sinfully seeks to imitate, poorly, the ontological Trinity by forcing the unity and “oneness” of geographical proximity, ideological conformity onto the many particular kinds of humans that inhabit the city. It is an ugly, disorderly cacophony that is only sustained by tyranny. Tribal humanity is the humanity that ought to be. Humans generally settle naturally - when not coerced into other arrangements - by founder effect. When Cain leaves to settle East of Eden he demonstrates this fact by being the originator of a line of tool makers and users. Cain’s line is a line full of homo faber, and his descendants are fabricators, manufacturers, musicians and husbandmen. Each particular line of Cain’s descendants has their own specific type of Founder Effect and specialization - the division of labor - occurs through a type of speciation.



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