Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
— 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 ESV
All around us rages a battle for language. Whether it is to define the difference between a boy and a girl, determine if men can have babies, if free speech or a right to bear arms have some more obscure meaning than they lead on, if love for neighbor includes taking away their jobs or forced experimental vaccines, or who and what exemplifies real Christianity, all participate in this battle—but not all realize they are participating.
The term "Agrarian", a modest word, generally does not find itself in the middle of a vitriolic struggle for definition. Modern academics and political theorists have claimed the word for a sort of godless land-redistributing eco-socialist ideology (more on this in a future post). Benign dictionaries neuter it of its glory and restrict it to a “rural thing”, or “something to do with a farm”. Eco-idolaters (you’ll become familiar with this phrase, I promise) romanticize it and apply it to their worship of the dirt and use it to reminisce of times now gone.
This blog serves to righteously fight for this word, take dominion of it, better define it, and use it to the glory of God.
You see, Christians are Agrarians. The Bible is an Agrarian book. The whole of human history and experience has been Agrarian; and all of history is inherently a Christian thing. Christ is Lord over all, is he not?
What this blog submits to the reader is not a succinct definition that could some day find itself in the Merriam-Webster. Rather, it will put forth a holistic approach to defining Agrarianism. One made of real things and real experiences. One that engages with topics from defying tyranny through farming, climate change fear-mongering, slaughtering of chicken and pigs, rearing of children, righteous dominion taking, as well as commentating on ecological, political, and agricultural issues.
God is leading many of his people away from the bondage of centralized, industrialized, materialistic, soul-deadening, God-hating, earth-destroying world system to a redemptive Christian Agrarianism. I pray that you are one.
