1. The Business
2. The Vision
3. The Program
4. The Marketing Issues

The Business

Vine & Fig Tree is a 501(c)(3) non-profit tax-exempt corporation. We incorporated as non-profit in order to raise tax-deductible donations to offer scholarships for those who cannot afford our HomeStudy/Coaching Program.  
  

The “Vine & Fig Tree” Vision

The original "American Dream" was described by America's Founders as everyone living securely "under his own vine and fig tree." This phrase is found repeatedly in the Bible: 

A fuller statement of the "Vine & Fig Tree" vision is found on our homepage.

Our goal is to teach the Bible so that Americans are once again animated by the "Vine & Fig Tree" vision.

"Public schools" were a by-product of the "Protestant Reformation" with its slogan of "sola Scriptura," to make sure everyone in society could read the Bible for themselves. The Bible was the foundation of America's government, laws, and institutions, and made America the most prosperous and admired nation in history. The Bible has been progressively banned from the public square and public schools, and now the U.S. is bankrupt and despised.

Our corporate mission is to implement the "Vine & Fig Tree" vision, not as a feel-good Hallmark™ Card, but as a "worldview," a blueprint for legal, socio-political, and economic reform. We are primarily an "activist" social change agent. Sales of books or other study programs are means to that end. We seek to:

• abolish the U.S. Military-Industrial Complex ("beat swords into plowshares")
• repeal the U.S. Constitution and abolish the U.S. Government
• raise up affiliates in other nations to pursue this vision in countries around the world
• transform America into a Biblical Theocracy once again and pick up where we left off until 
• "the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:9; Habakkuk 2:14) and
• "the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever" (Revelation 11:15)

From a marketing perspective, we are fully aware that we are trying to sell the three most offensive and hated words in the modern political lexicon:

• "Pacifism"
• "Anarchism"
• "Theocracy"

All hated. All slandered. All misunderstood.

• As Theocrats, we do not believe in "the separation of church and state."
• As Anarchists, we believe in the abolition of church and state.
• As Pacifists, we believe in persuasion only; no government coercion or violent revolution.

The Program

Our primary product at this time is a "homeschool program for adults." Education is not just for children. Adults should be lifelong learners.

We believe America's Bible-free secular public schools have made adults victims of educational malpractice. We can duplicate 12 years of colonial American education in just one year, through an online home-study/coaching program.

We offer coaching and accountability to help adults read through the Bible from cover to cover each year, along with four other works which were among the most important works in the history of Western Civilization.

One example of our Bible Study Coaching Program -- targeting fans of George Washington -- is "GeorgeWashingtonCoaching.com." Our goal is to dress up our program to target fans of other heroes, who, if they were alive today, would recommend our goal and program.

Another example: How|To|Become|A|Christian|Anarchist.com  
To anticipate the marketing issues (below), we have assumed that some marketing incentive would be necessary to get anyone to sign up for this Program. Hence: Anarchist|Bible|Bet.com

Marketing Issues

An Analogy from History

Imagine a young man whose father runs a small brewery. He loans his son money to start a business. The business fails. The young man resorts to working for his father. After his father dies, he inherits this brewery, and within a few years manages it into bankruptcy. He becomes a political agitator, ending up on the government's terrorist watchlist. He becomes known as "The Father of the American Revolution." His name is Samuel Adams.

Could Samuel Adams have made a living by getting Americans to pay him to teach them why they should support The Declaration of Independence?

Probably not. The reason? Americans already knew why they should support the Declaration of Independence. They had learned from childhood in America's public schools that:

• that there really is a God, and His existence is a "self-evident truth"
• that our rights really are the product of the intelligent design of our Creator
            (not a gift from the government)
• that all Americans really are obligated to conform their lives to
            "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God"
• that one day our actions really must pass judgment with
            "the Supreme Judge of the world"
• that all Americans should have "a firm reliance on
            the Protection of Divine Providence."
• that Americans have a duty -- not just a right
            -- to abolish any government
            that becomes a tyranny.

The mission of our business is to propagate these "self-evident truths." We want people to pay us to tell them things that they already, deep down, know to be true.

Our “Boat” from “Pain Island” to “Pleasure Island”

Our "boat" is our Program, which takes our clients from their present situation ("Pain Island") to the place we believe is best for them ("Pleasure Island"). 

(It may sound arrogant [in our "tolerant" culture] to claim "we know what's best" for our clients. A school teacher believes the student will never get to "Pleasure Island" [successful, prosperous functioning as an adult] unless the student memorizes the multiplication tables. Not only does the student not believe this process is the "Boat" that gets to "Pleasure Island," but that the process is "Pain Island" itself. Millions of people in the last few centuries have believed that this is why education must be backed by government coercion. We reject that belief.)

All human beings are created in the Image of God. They are hard-wired to function best in a “Vine & Fig Tree” world. A violent, atheistic world causes trauma deep in the core of every human being. An internal FAITH in the “Vine & Fig Tree” vision helps overcome the effects of this trauma when the external trauma itself cannot be immediately removed. FAITH means actively working to replace violent atheism and restore a “Vine & Fig Tree” world, with a confidence that this is not only actually ultimately possible, but is an assured certainty.

More on "Pleasure Island."

“Target Market”

Our target market is every human being on the planet. Saying this gives marketing experts aneurisms.

“Ideal Client”

Our ideal client is Kim Jong-un, Vladamir Putin, George Bush, and Barack Obama. They are "ideal clients" in terms of impact in promoting our corporate mission. They are not "ideal" in terms of reach. 

There is, however, a theory called "Six Degrees of Separation," which says that Vine & Fig Tree can reach any human being on earth with no more than five affiliates. Thus:

• Vine & Fig Tree knows
• Affiliate-1 who knows
• Affiliate-2 who knows
• Affiliate-3 who knows
• Affiliate-4 who knows
• Affiliate-5 who knows
• Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran

Among those people we are more likely to reach in the near-term, our ideal client is someone who

• does not realize he is on "Pain Island,"
• has been brainwashed to believe "Pleasure Island" is hell, and
• believes floating on water violates "the laws of physics."

While these people are easier to reach than superpower "archists," they are not easy to persuade. But these are clients who can most benefit from our efforts.

These people are also the most rewarding clients from the perspective of the teacher. The "ideal student" is not necessarily the bland "straight-A" student who doesn't really need a teacher ("auto-didact"), but the student who tries but just can't seem to "get it." The teacher has to reach inside the student for an anchor that can form the basis of an analogy:

This is a good feeling for the student, and gives a sense of accomplishment to the teacher.
Our "ideal client" is someone who doesn't "get it," but has an awareness that there is something to "get."

Nobody is Googling “Vine & Fig Tree.” Billions are yearning for it.

Our marketing strategy is to pick -- almost arbitrarily, and one after another -- a segment of the market with an identifiable "anchor" (also called "gateway problem") from which we can build a path to “Vine & Fig Tree.” The anchor could be a point of pain or pleasure.

• "George Washington" could be an example of a point of pleasure/admiration.
• "Family breakdown" could be a point of pain/trauma. Click here for a fuller discussion of "trauma."

An "Irresistible" Paradigm Shift

You hear that phrase (“paradigm shift”) thrown around a lot these days. Everybody wants their idea to be the next "paradigm shift." Paradigm-shifters are now mainstream. Vine & Fig Tree represents a true break with the status quo, a change as momentous as that described by Benjamin Rush, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, upon hearing of Locke's rejection of the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings: 

Never before had I heard the authority of kings called in question. I had been taught to consider them nearly as essential to political order as the sun is to the order of our solar system.

Vine & Fig Tree really is a new "paradigm," a "Copernican revolution," a radical way of looking at politics and society. It is one step beyond the radical vision that motivated America's Founding Fathers. It is a vision so old that it appears to be utterly unprecedented.

The vision of Vine & Fig Tree gives energy and hope to those who work for it. It inspires dedicated action. 

For Rush, who was present in the Congress as a representative of Pennsylvania, the events surrounding the creation of the Republic marked nothing less than a turning point in the course of human history. "I was animated constantly," he reflected in later years, "by a belief that I was acting for the benefit of the whole world, and of future ages, by assisting in the formation of new means of political order and general happiness."11 ___________________           11. The Autobiography of Benjamin Rush, edited by George W. Corner (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1948), p.161.

Vine & Fig Tree's mission is to contribute to the Glory of God and the greater happiness of mankind. The vision of Vine & Fig Tree will animate future leaders and captivate the hearts and minds of many.

Dr. Rush speaks of "a turning point," which is to speak of a turning  from something to something else. From what should we turn? To what should we aspire? 

I believe we must move

• From a world of priests and princes ruling over the immature and irresponsible, a world which is simultaneously "secular" and suffused with a host of pagan faiths
• To a world of self-governing families in which all believers are priests and kings under Christ, where the knowledge of the LORD covers the earth as the waters cover the sea.

Many people balked at the "turning point" which the Declaration of Independence represented. Many will balk at Vine & Fig Tree -- it is the overthrowing of ideas which many have believed are as essential to social order or the Christian faith "as the sun is to the order of our solar system."

The marketing challenge is to make this vision a "turning point" in the history of mankind. We want to make this vision "irresistible."

But what one person finds "irresistible," another finds repugnant. A member of ISIS does not find anything "irresistible" in the message of Jesus Christ: "Love your enemies." Can any marketing guru re-work the "copy" to make the message "irresistible" to a violent barbarian without changing the meaning of the message?

Our goal is to remove language which is unnecessarily offensive and to state the message clearly in a way that appeals to the "Image of God" in every human being, and to "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" which are written on the stoniest of hearts.