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Thursday, August 27, 2009

In His Service: Chapter 4 The Battle for Righteousness

The Application of Biblical Law to Secular Society

In R.J. Rushdoony's fourth chapter of In His Service he lists eight points on God's law as it relates to the renewal of all things. Before we look at the eight points a presupposition must be established. The law of God is the standard, the source and the law of justice. Even secular societies know this. Therefore, in order to have justice God's law must be applied to society. Also, in order to live a righteous life God's law must be applied to our daily life. It is important to know that the very law that is to be applied also forbids application by coercion; it is by regeneration, renewal.

Rushdoony lists eight applications of God's law that is done through regeneration unto regeneration. Renewal begets renewal.... First, the government must be under God. It is not under the state and not under the church. It is not under man. Man has been corrupted by the fall and therefore can only corrupt justice. The state and the church have very limited powers under God's law. Power and authority are God's. Government must be under God.

Second, God's law works through economics, the tithe. The tithes should be encouraged and humanistic taxes abolished. (allocation list) Tithes are more efficient than unjust state allocations, subsidies and wealth transfer schemes. Rushdoony points out the economic limits placed on the church and the state; "the sanctuary receives one percent of a man's increase" and "the civil government receives only a half a shekel a year from all males twenty and over." He also goes into further details. This makes the family the basic institution in Scripture.

The family, this is the third point. Treason is an act against the family rather than the state. Everything Rushdoony writes has something in it that stresses how important the family is to God. The laws protect the family. If the courts do not protect the family they are unjust.

The next five points are more straight forward but no less important. Fourth, courts must be just. Fifth, the penalty of restitution must be restored. There is no forgiveness without restitution. Resoration + must be made of the destruction made by sin. Remember, the goal of God's law is the renewal of all things to "very good". Restitution is necessary to bring about holiness. For example:

Sixth, the land must have it's Sabbaths. The renewal of all things also includes the earth. Seventh, Our duty is to work for righteousness sake. Riches are good and yet they are not our goal. Be content and not greedy. The LORD gives and takes according to His great plan in the regeneration of the entire creation. Eight, God's law must be enforced in us and through us.

Rushdoony reminds us again that the goal of God's law is the regeneration of all things, God's Kingdom. It is a physical and spiritual reality growing in total holiness unto the LORD. He has made his people co-heirs with Christ.


Tuesday, August 25, 2009

In His Service: Chapter 3 The Battle for a Generation: Focus on Education

In this third chapter Rushdoony makes clear that public education makes morality a subjective concern rather than an objective standard. This has deadly consequences. He says that there are two areas of society that clearly reveal the religion of the people, education and law.

When education makes morality a subjective concern then the law is also subjective. This means that authority, creeds and traditional wisdom is undermined. "Head religion" is replaced with "heart religion". Anselm's "I believe, in order that I may understand." (the belief of sanctifying renewal through the ages) has been replaced with, "I experience, in order that I believe." and "I test, in order that I may understand." Both deny authority, tradition and creeds. Both deny the authority of our Creator. Instead man assumes that he can be all knowing.

Rushdoony also points out something very interesting: "Instead of theology being the queen of sciences, it was no longer even a science." God's law word no longer commands the world and life according to modern society. Man is trying to be god. He is turning his back on the Source of all knowledge and life and instead trying to produce a man made sphere of chaotic and deadly intelligence and knowledge. Humanistic education has become this quest. A quest to save society without God.

Why is this quest deadly? Because it makes morality a subjective concern rather than an objective standard. It educates and teaches skills to unregenerate people. Immoral people with no objective standard increases lawlessness' power. Perversity is not checked. Without being conformed to Jesus, the Lord of Glory, but rather to depraved man society devolves. Immoral behavior becomes the right of any man. Man depersonalizes the world in order to have his right to sin. The world suffers.

Christian education, on the other hand, personalizes and upgrades man to the image of God. Being the children of light requires bring up children "in the nurture and the admonition of the LORD" not the image and deadly wisdom of humanists. We will be held accountable because "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our LORD, and of His Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." Rev. 11:15


Thursday, August 20, 2009

In His Service: Chapter 2 The Unseen Enemy: Secular Humanism

In this second chapter Rushdoony points out the real enemy is secular humanism and, in Segerberg's words, man's "Modern Verification of His Wisdom and How It Can Help You" is the teaching of the day. Furthermore, even though "humanist can at times believe in God" they don't see Jesus as the Son of God but as a resource for man. This means that each man looks to himself for sovereignty in building society: determining each for himself what is good and evil. It is no wonder that there are so many conflicts and buildings full of laws and regulations. This is the true unseen enemy of liberty. Rushdoony makes four observations of secular humanism:

1. To take any word from God on faith is held to be irrational and bad religion.
2. It premises that it is possible that man's science, given enough time, will overcome all social and physical problems including death.
3. It follows that disobedience to God is the beginning of wisdom.
4. Every man will be his own source of law and morality instead of God's sovereignty.

These give us a clear understanding of salvation and what is necessary action in order to fight this unseen enemy. It is NOT the coercion of man to live by God's law word. It is regeneration. It is the opposite of the four observation Rushdoony laid out in this chapter:

1. Take every word of God on faith and apply it to our lives. Make it our religion.
2. Only Jesus, the Son of God and our atonement, has, is and will overcome all social and physical problems including death.
3. Obedience to God is the beginning of wisdom.
4. See Jesus as the Son of God, our atonement, Lord and Sovereign. "But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Matt 4:4

Secular Humanism is suicidal. We are warned:
And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. Rev 18:4

William Federer highlights the Roman Empire society before it's fall and it doesn't seem too different from our own:







Rushdoony ends this chapter with the great commission. The LORD requires us to establish His law word in our lives as far as our authority reaches. This means individually spiritually, physically and with our children, in our homes, jobs, businesses and with those under our command, not by coercion but by application on faith. If this is not done then death is our society's end.


Thursday, August 13, 2009

In His Service: Chapter 1 The Place of Biblical Law in Society

Another Rushdoony book has been released. He continues to educate and honor our triune God years after his passing. Chapter one of "In His Service" speaks to the chaos of the day and gives an easy solution, if only we would heed and do. He points out how God, through His tax (tithe) laws, severely limit the power of the ecclesiastical and civil governments. Who then has the responsibility to action?

"This means that the central area of action is within the covenant family and its members. The family is the cradle of life, man's first church, school, government, vocation. God's law does not allow us to shift our duties onto the state or to the church."

It cannot be argued that society has needs and problems. That need is to be dealt with. "Social financing is a necessity." But Rushdoony points out that most of those duties do not belong to a centralized power that is easily corrupted but to a decentralized covenant people . They are to provide for it. Furthermore, Rushdoony warns: "Wherever the Christian community abandons its necessary task of government and help, other forces take it over.... The purpose of the church's service is not an impressive musical or liturgical treat (even though they have their place*) but to provide marching orders to the soldiers of Christ."

*emphasis is my own

Go here http://www.chalcedon.edu/papers/Taxation.pdf to learn about what the Bible says about taxation and welfare. Here is a clip:

Justice (civil government):
The civil government is biblically charged with administering justice, not health, education or charitable work (Rom. 13:1-7). A Scriptural civil government is supported solely by a half-shekel poll tax that all citizens pay (the Bible says 20 years old males) as a strictly flat tax (Ex. 30:1-16), which keeps the size of civil government small and gives all citizens an equal stake in societal justice.
Health, education & welfare:
According to the Bible, health care, education, poverty relief and charitable work are personal concerns, not institutional concerns, and are to be administered by individuals, not by the state, through the various tithes. The 10% per year social tithe of Lev. 27:30-33 and Num. 18:20-24 is to be individually directed to education and health in the community, and the prorated 3.3% per year poor tithe of Deut. 14:28-29 is to be given directly to the poor without middlemen. When churches and Christians fail to pay God’s tithes and ensure their proper use toward fulfilling society’s needs, the state takes over with disastrous consequences. Prior to state involvement in health, education and welfare, churches built and ran hospitals (Christian ethics were upheld and doctors were respected as Christ’s servants), Christian families and communities founded schools and universities and educated their own children (literacy in America was vastly more extensive), and Christian communities met the needs of the sick and poor.
The poor tithe and eradication of poverty:
The modern state, by waging a secular “war on poverty” while violating God’s laws, has only increased poverty, not reduced it. Deut. 15:4 points out that if God’s laws are obeyed, “there shall be no more poor among you.” Obeying God’s Law of the poor tithe brings God’s blessing upon the people and their productivity (Deut. 14:28-29; 16:12-15). The Bible calls neglect of the poor tithe grinding the faces of the poor (Isa. 3:15). (When Jesus said in Matt. 26:11, “The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have Me with you,” He was telling the disciples that in their lifetime they would not always have personal face-to-face contact with Him but they would encounter the poor. Christ here was indicting Israel’s violation of the poor tithe, quoting from Deut. 15:11 that “there shall always be poor people in the land” because those who should pay the poor tithe were “hardhearted and tightfisted” [Deut. 15:7].) Jesus told the rich young ruler in Mark 10:19ff he had failed to keep this law, and called on him to pay restitution to those he had covertly robbed through disobedience (similar to the four-fold restitution that repentant tax collector Zacchaeus, in obedience to God’s Law, announced he would pay to those he had defrauded, an action prompting salvation coming upon his house). The young ruler did not covet: verse 19’s unique term defraud not (Greek: apostereseis) is used in Deut. 24:14, Mal. 3:5 and Ex. 21:10 in regard to depriving or withholding from the needy. The amount he had withheld from the poor over the years, after God’s penalties were compounded, amounted to all he had (as Christ’s instruction to him makes clear), so to obey God’s Law and make restitution for his moral failure, he had to sell it all and return the lump sum to the poor (Mark 10:21). As with the woman at the well (John 4:18), Jesus pierced the ruler’s lawlessness. Because God is not a respecter of persons, Jesus focused on a specific sin (sin = transgression of God’s Law; 1 John 3:4) that required repentance. When the ruler persisted in transgressing God’s Law, he continued grinding the faces of the poor. Shortly thereafter we meet a likely victim of such grinding, the poor widow (Mark 12:43ff) for whom two mites amounted to “all she had.” Two centuries earlier her need could have been satisfied because Israel had, despite economically difficult times, maintained on hand the poor tithe offerings for such charitable relief (2 Macc. 3:10 – 600 talents of silver & gold).