Good and evil are determined by His being and purpose, so that the ultimate point of reference in all things is God and His word, the binding word and the word of dominion. The tempter's belief was and is that the creature, in order to fulfill his calling to dominion, must exercise it independently, i.e., that the image of God in man requires man to be god. Man must begin the construction of his true kingdom, the kingdom of Man, by declaring that he himself is the tree of knowledge, the source of the word of dominion. But salvation is not merely fire insurance, and preaching which stresses heaven and hell as motives for salvation is clearly humanistic and serves the interests of fallen man. It is the word of dominion which rescues us from the evil and anarchy of the kingdom of Man to the service of the kingdom of God.
Fire insurance establishes no responsibility.
As a result, while Harold Lindsell's very able and conscientious defense of the infallible word is to be commended, the history he recounts should not surprise us. They can tolerate no other word. This is exactly what we see. If there is no dominion word of sovereign grace in salvation, then there is no dominion word for any realm. The Chalcedon Foundation, all rights reserved.