PROJECT EBENEZER

 

The Westminster Larger Catechism rightly summarizes what we may look forward to from Scripture in its answer to Question 191:

 

 

Q. 191. What do we pray for in the second petition?

A. In the second petition, (which is, Thy kingdom come,[1222]) acknowledging ourselves and all mankind to be by nature under the dominion of sin and Satan,[1223] we pray, that the kingdom of sin and Satan may be destroyed,[1224] the gospel propagated throughout the world,[1225] the Jews called,[1226] the fullness of the Gentiles brought in;[1227] the church furnished with all gospel-officers and ordinances,[1228] purged from corruption,[1229] countenanced and maintained by the civil magistrate:[1230] that the ordinances of Christ may be purely dispensed, and made effectual to the converting of those that are yet in their sins, and the confirming, comforting, and building up of those that are already converted:[1231] that Christ would rule in our hearts here,[1232] and hasten the time of his second coming, and our reigning with him forever:[1233] and that he would be pleased so to exercise the kingdom of his power in all the world, as may best conduce to these ends.[1234]

 

 

 

We may look forward to a time when many civil states will countenance and maintain the church which upholds the true religion.  This should be our desire, and we know this has been promised by God in His word.

 

But, sadly, today there is arguably not even one such civil state.  It seems all of the nations of the earth are based in false ideologies, whether secular humanism, Islam, etc.  There does not appear to be even one reformed Christian state in the world today.  This is quite in contrast with the 16th and 17th centuries, when some of the leading nations of the world at the time, like Britain and the Netherlands, were reformed Christian states.

 

Is there anything reformed Christians living today can do for the raising up of at least one civil state in the world which may serve as a beacon and example for other states of the world?  Thankfully, we are not the first to have asked this question in human history.  Let’s consider just two examples from history, when a similar question has been raised and answered.

 

In the book of Nehemiah we read how in Nehemiah’s day there also was no state in the world based in Biblical principles, yet how God remedied the situation: “And they said unto me [Nehemiah], The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province [are] in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also [is] broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.  And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned [certain] days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,… Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, [If] ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations: But [if] ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, [yet] will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there…And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, [that] wine [was] before him: and I took up the wine, and gave [it] unto the king. Now I had not been [beforetime] sad in his presence. Wherefore the king said unto me, Why [is] thy countenance sad, seeing thou [art] not sick? this [is] nothing [else] but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid, And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, [lieth] waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.  And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it.  And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.”   (Nehemiah 1:3-2:6)

 

And in the early 17th century a group of Englishmen saw the need for a more thoroughly reformed Christian state, especially for Englishmen.  The Pilgrims pondered where to place such a state and how to obtain it. They decided the best option was to petition for land in Virginia.  The Virginia Company granted them an 80,000 acre tract of land where they as a community could fish and trade with the Indians, to be called the Plymouth colony.  The Plymouth colonists not only observed the laws of legal propriety with fellow Englishmen, but also with the indigenous people.  The colonists’ initial settlement was established on vacant territory given to them by Massassoit Osamequen, who lived inland from the coastal area where the Pilgrims landed, an area emptied a couple of years earlier by a devastating epidemic. Plymouth Colony started to buy additional land from Indians in 1633.  The Plymouth colony understood it could not properly acquire land from Indians except through purchase or other composition with them. Plymouth’s court repeatedly commissioned its representatives “to purchase lands of the Indians the true propriators.” Plymouth’s rule that the court had exclusive rights to buy land from Indians was evidently intended as an ethical response to questions of humanity and colonization, for which English law and culture did not offer the inexperienced settlers any explicit precedents.   The deeds show that Plymouth’s court pursued policies intended to protect the rights of individual Indians. The Plymouth colonists initiated their organization of a government and legal structure by formulating a self-declared "combination" in which the necessity of forming a "civill body politick" was set forth in the Mayflower Compact:

 

“In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwriten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign, Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the faith, etc. Having undertaken for the glory of God, and the advancement of the Christian faith, and the honor of our King and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof, do enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which promise all due submission and obedience.”

 

They established a state based explicitly in the principles of God’s word.  Thus, crimes against the Ten Commandments were punished, and a reformed Christian state was established.

 

With these excellent examples in mind, we should ponder today how a reformed Christian state can be established, given present circumstances.  The objective of Project Ebenezer is to plan and establish a reformed Christian settlement and state somewhere in the world (likely in Africa) which will serve as a model to other states in the world.  It would likely involve petitioning some current nation in Africa for the right to establish a semi-autonomous settlement and state within their nation, paying certain initial as well as on-going fees for such rights.  It would have to be designed and presented in such a way as to be a win-win for both parties.  Given the current economic distress in Africa, combined with less hostility in Africa to a religion-based state than is present in the secularist West, it is possible to conceive its plausibility. 

 

Project Ebenezer could come under the superintendence of the Reformation Party once the Reformation Party has officers as well as a sufficient number of voting members.