Classroom Lectures - Jackson Seminary

Biblical Exposition (Post Mill.)

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Philosophy

Lesson: 3-4

Genre: Speech

Track: 253

Dictation Name: RR100B3

Location/Venue:

Year: 1960’s - 1970’s

Let us begin with prayer. Our Lord and God we come to Thee today mindful of the abundance of Thy mercy. We thank Thee that Thy Word is true, and the Word of truth has been given to us to light our way. We thank Thee that by Thy grace we are a new people in Christ Jesus. That all Thy promises to us in Him are yea and amen. Make us ever joyful in Thee and in Thy word, in Jesus name, Amen.

Dr. Smith suggested that in this hour I continue the subject of post-millennialism. We studied last week the theological and philosophical underpinnings of the position. Now let us consider it, very briefly of course, from a Biblical exegetical position. There are a number of books and material that are well worth reading. (Vetners?) Millennium is an excellent one, both {?} of the Church’ is an excellent critique of the Schofieldien dispensational pre-millennial interpretations. Campbell’s, what is it, Roderick Campbell, Israel and the Church? ‘Israel and the New Covenant’, is an important study. Alexander’s commentary on Isaiah is a classic in the field, and also T.V. Moore’s Zachariah, with his available, as is Alexander also I believe, from the Banner of Truth trust. He and Murray’s ‘The Puritan Hope’, my book ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ which is on Daniel and Revelation, and a number of other books, oh, I mustn’t forget Marcella Kik’s, J.M. Kik’s, ‘The Eschatology of Victory’. All these will give you far more on detailed exegesis of the post-millennial position. I can add another commentary that’s good in this area, and that is Alexander’s ‘Psalms‘. I mention psalms because I shall deal with that specifically in this hour.

Too often, as eschatology is treated, people deal with a few classic texts, and I’m going to avoid those, I’ve given you these books as references whereby you can check out interpretations including mine of Daniel and Revelation, of Thessalonians, of Isaiah, of Zachariah, and many of the other classic texts that deal with the subject. But in reality, the real answer is to be found from one end of Scripture to the other. One of the stories I like by the way, in this area, is told by Dr. Charles Woodbridge himself. Woodbridge is perhaps the Dean of fundamentalists, pre-millennialism thinkers in this country, a very fine man. And a very close friend of J. Gresham Machen, who was a post-millennial. And Machen thought highly of Woodbridge, in fact remembered him very generously in his will. However, as Woodbridge himself told this story to me on one occasion, he said that he was for some years very anxious to convert Machen to pre-millennialism, and he said finally he was thoroughly squelched by Machen and he never brought up the subject again. And he said as they were walking along one day, he propagandizing him on this or that aspect of the pre-millennial position. And Machen said: “Well Charlie, I could accept pre-millennialism if it weren’t for one thing.” So Woodbridge said: “I eagerly asked: “What is it?” figuring I could settle it in a moment, one thing.” Machen said: “It isn’t in the Bible, Charlie.”

Now, the Bible from beginning to end is saturated with its eschatology, it shows throughout. For example, when we read Genesis 3:15; “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”

Bruise or crush, means here the destruction of the head of Satan. And where the head is crushed, the power is gone. And this is the essence of this statement. And St. Paul fixed this up Romans 16:20, and says, then Satan shall be bruised under your feet shortly, he shall be crushed under your feet. This was the Christian hope.

But let us turn to the Psalms to see something of what the Psalter tells us. First of all, one of the things that characterize the Psalms, beginning with the first Psalm, is the principle that there is a way that leads to life and a way that leads to death. And that, inescapably, the principle of life means flourishing, it means victory. The man who walks in the counsel of the ungodly is like chaff, which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand, we are told, in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. So that, as a principle, the ungodly have no place in God’s creation. They are ultimately destroyed. But the man whose delight is in the Law of the Lord is like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in its season, his leaf also shall not wither, and what so ever he doeth shall prosper. A fundamental premise, therefore, of Scripture is here set forth. The way of the ungodly is not going to prosper under God, and finally in the judgment, it means total destruction. But the godly are like trees that are planted by rivers of water. They shall prosper. In Proverbs 8, the concluding verse, 36 I believe, again we have this same kind of principle set forth, as we do indeed in the Sermon on the Mount. That he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul, all they that hate me love death. To turn from God means to be governed by a will to death. The principle of suicide, of self-destruction. Thus as we go through Scripture we see continually this parallel. The way of the ungodly leads to death, culminating in the judgment, the way of the righteous is the way of prosperity, of life. They shall be fat and flourishing, we are told.

But let us look in particular at the second Psalm, I want to spend a little time on that, because it is of such great importance. This Psalm is one of the two most quoted portions of the Old Testament, in the New. The other is the passage in Isaiah, the vision of the Lord high and lifted up, where the hardening of the hearts is referred to, that hearing they shall not hear and seeing they shall not see, lest they turn and be converted. Apart from that passage, nothing else in the Old Testament is more quoted than Psalm 2. So that the position of Psalm 2 is echoed repeatedly as essential to the Gospel and to the Epistles.

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,

Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.

He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.

Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.

Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.

I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.

Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.

Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.

Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

Now this Psalm gives us, in capsule form, in the best concentrated form of all of Scripture, the Biblical philosophy of history. And what does it say. It tells us that the heathen, and commentators have made clear in some translators that this means the ungodly nations, the powers of the world, they rage, and the people, the Gentiles, the unregenerate, imagine a vain thing. They set themselves up, and they take council, or some have translated this, and this is interesting, they conspire together. Now, as against many conservatives who are strong on conspiracy, we must say that as Christians we do believe there is a conspiracy, the conspiracy of Satan against God.

And like any and every conspiracy, it is doomed, because the idea of conspiracy is to determine the course of history, and only God can do that. So whether it is the conspiracy of men or the conspiracy of Satan, they imagine a vain thing. Thus we must say, whether it is to Satan, or to the Communists, or to the atheists, or to any other group in the world, when they dream of capturing control of history, of dominating the world, of saying this is ours, they imagine a vain thing. Their conspiracy is against the Lord, and against His anointed. Every ungodly movement is aimed primarily against the Lord and against His anointed. And here again, speaking of conservatives, we must say that in defending what you do, you are defending the minor thing and in terms of Saul’s armor, when the real defense must be of the faith, with the Lord’s armor. Let us break their band asunder and cast away their cords. Let us dispense with God’s world of law, let us dispense with the restraint of God and His order, let us create our own paradise of earth, a paradise without God, the kingdom of man. And what is the response of God? Now this is the one of the most magnificent verses in all of Scripture. And I counsel you to memorize this Psalm, and to remember it when you feel low. He that sitteth in the heaven shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. This is what we need, to share in God’s laughter as His people. So as we face the conspiring of the all the world of powers against God and His anointed, we share in that heavenly laughter. The confidence in the absolute and sovereign God, before whom the nations and the isles are as nothing. That no one can for a fraction of a moment, deflect history from His predestined course. The Lord shall have them in derision.

And rightfully so. And so should we. We should not fear, though the mountains shake, though the mountains be moved into the seas, though the earth tremble, for the Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge. The derision of God, for all the vanity of man as he seeks to oppose God, should be ours also. We should be more than conquerors in Christ. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, vex them in His sore displeasure. We have a picture of God laughing in amazement at the insanity of man, then pronouncing His judgment upon them from all eternity, in His sore displeasure. Yet have I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion. It is decreed, nothing can shake it. I have established My throne, My capital, it is Zion. Out of My true Church, the Invisible Church, I shall reign. My Son, ordained from before the foundation of the world, shall re-establish that which Satan tried to overthrow in Eden. My Kingdom, I will declare the decree. The Lord has said unto Me, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten thee. Just before, God the Father speaks, now God the Son speaks. And of course, these are the words we have at the Baptism also. Christ speaks here, but God says to Him in His incarnation, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten. You are now My appointed Heir, to rule the world, and this is My decree from before the foundation of the world, therefore ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession. The whole world is therefore committed to Christ as King.

Now some people say, but our Lord said My Kingdom is not of this world, what does that mean? It meant simply this. Was He the King Israel was expecting, whose kingship was of men? No. He did not deny that He was the King, the rightful heir of the throne of David. When He was confronted with this charge, he said, thou sayest it. You’ve said it. But His Kingship was not of this world, it was not derived from men, even as His priesthood was not of this world, but of the order of Melchizedek. That is, directly from God. Melchizedek’s priesthood was without father, without mother, that is, it was not inherited as the priesthood of Aaron. It came directly from God. Melchizedek had a father and had a mother, but he did not derive his priesthood from father or mother, from hereditary, from man, from the will of the flesh, but directly from God. And so the priesthood of our Lord was of Melchizedek. The order of Melchizedek, the same kind, directly from God’s eternal ordination. And so is His Kingship. Though indeed He was of the house of David. Yet He specifically denied that His was a Kingship that Israel could confer. And when men tried to seize Him by force and make Him King, He refused to be made King by men, or of men. Because He was already King, of God. So the uttermost parts of the earth, the Gentiles, the heathen nations, are His inheritance. And so God speaks, Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, Thou dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Now the comparison of a rod of iron and a potter’s vessel is quite a dramatic one. The utter hopelessness of a potter’s vessel, a dish, resisting a rod of iron, that’s the imagery. So hopeless is it for the nations of the world to dream of resisting God. Of resisting the dominion of Christ.

Who shall establish all things under His power. Isaiah gives us a vision of that, the heart of his book after dealing the atonement, he goes on to speak of the conquest of the world by the people of God. And how again the world will resemble, more and more, a paradise. So that the sinner having died at a hundred will be accounted to have died young, in other words, the lifespan will again be very long. We’re not told how long, whether it will be as long as before the Flood, but that it will be very long. The desert shall blossom like the rose, the waste places of the earth will again be habitable. There is reason to believe that before the Flood, the whole earth, from Pole to Pole, was inhabited. The evidences are of a very semi-tropical climate, in the Siberian area mammoths were frozen instantaneously with buttercups in their mouths. And in the Czar’s regime, the meat was still good and it was sometimes served to foreign dignitaries when they were there, the meat of animals from before the Flood, frozen. The Antarctic reveals, underneath the snow and ice, a tropical or semi-tropical world that once existed before the Flood. Very interesting, there’s a book that was written a few years ago by a scientist who had been an associate of Einstein. A professor in California with whom I was discussing the book said, it is ignored, even though the credentials of {half of it?} are very good, because it says something that doesn’t sit well with the modern world. Well what was it? And this is just a by the way, but I think it’s such a delightful point that I will bring it up. Not too many years ago, in the papers of a Turkish admiral who died during Columbus’s life time, an old map that this Turkish admiral, {Heresrius?}, had collected, was discovered among his effects. Now the map went way back before {Heresrius?}’s day. So it antedated Columbus. And the map very obviously, shows some very remarkable things. It had north and south and central America, and it had the Antarctic world very carefully charted.

There were also all kinds of computations that they couldn’t decipher, they couldn’t figure out. So they turned it over to, the Pentagon asked for it, and it turned it over to, finally, to Hapgood, and he had a whole group of graduate students work on it for a period of years, until they decoded it. They found that not only did it have an accurate mapping of the entire world, including Antarctica before there was any ice on it, but also they could compute both longitude and latitude, and a good many other things. So it was a real shock. Then they began collecting a lot of old maps everywhere in the world, and they found that there was a great deal of such knowledge that went back twenty centuries or so B.C. That apparently at that time, they had an extensive knowledge of the whole world. And certainly knew how to communicate with each other. So, he comments, Hapgood does in his book, ‘Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings’, that there is a myth or legend in the Bible about men at one time having one language all over the world, and it must echo some dim truth, because there’s evidence of this in the maps. Well, of course what we would have to say is, that these maps were made by men in the days not too long after Noah, within a few generations, when the ice had not settled on the Antarctic and they charted the whole world. But they had developed a great deal of technology before the Flood, and still retained some of it, and gradually lost it later. Because one of the interesting things is, some of those ancient civilizations had a technology that was subsequently lost.

At Mohenjo-daro in India, they had sewer lines and running water in the houses. At Knossos in Crete, they had, when Moses was not yet on the scene, hot and cold running water, and flush toilets in the palace. A high civilization.

Now, to return to the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession. The whole world again, according to Isaiah, is again to blossom like the rose. Everything is again to be under man’s dominion, this time godly dominion. And so the word is, submit yourselves. Here’s the King who can break the nations in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Be wise now therefore oh ye kings, be instructed ye judges of the earth, David now speaks, inspired of the Holy Spirit. And so he counsels the nations and rulers, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling, kiss the Son lest he angry and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Now, when he summons them to kiss the Son, it means to bow down as before the King of kings, an Emperor, and kiss His feet. To prostrate themselves totally before Him, Lord and sovereign, begging His mercy for their sin, and totally committing themselves to Christ the King. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him. Now this Psalm gives us the Biblical philosophy of history. And it’s a dramatic picture. A picture of Christ as King, who shall triumph, and who shall rule to the uttermost parts of the earth. This is a post-millennial Psalm, very obviously. Now before we go on to another Psalm, are there any questions.

Yes.

[Audience] …{?}…

[Dr. Rushdoony] Very good question. Why isn’t this all with the Second Coming? Of course, then there is no dominion over the earth, there’s just an end.

[Audience] …{?}…

[Dr. Rushdoony] Yes. You so very clearly have set forth in the prophets, for example, I mention the commentary of Zachariah, that is by one of the great southern Presbyterian Old Testament scholars, T.V. Moore. You very definitely have a picture of world triumph there. Again, in Isaiah the picture very definitely is one of the rule of the world by the saints of God. So you have this so repeatedly in Scripture, you’re told that nation shall not make war against nation, and they shall beat their swords into plow-shares, well that’s not after the Second Coming, that’s before. You see it’s so very clearly obvious that before the end of history, this will be the case.

I was very much amused a couple of years ago, I had a student helping me, doing some typing, he was very definitely au-millennial. And he just couldn’t see it. Then I found that he created quite a ruckus at a particular church one Sunday in the adult class, because they were setting the second chapter of Isaiah and suddenly he turned post-millennial as they read it. And he raised his hand and asked the pastor, he said, how can you read that except as a post-millennial? And he said, well you have to see the spiritual meaning of it, and so the student said, well now how can you explain a spiritual meaning for beating their swords into plow-shares and their spears into pruning hooks, nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore, and he said, now, tell me, how you can understand that in an au-millennial sense. And the minister couldn’t answer him, of course. Because it either means what it says, or it has no meaning.

Yes.

[Audience] …{?}…

[Dr. Rushdoony] Well, now, let’s press the language. It says that the weapons of war are going to be turned into the weapons of peace. Now what other meanings are you going to give it as a au-millennial? Now you interpret it.

[Audience] I don’t know that I can.

[Dr. Rushdoony] And that’s precisely the point, no one has been able to interpret it without doing violence to it. It obviously means the weapons of war are going to be turned into weapons of peace. And nation shall not make war against nation, they shall not learns war any more. That’s very literal. Now the weapons of war, obviously Isaiah was not speaking about cannons in his days. So Revelation always speaks in terms of the reality to the day, symbolic, but very clearly it says, that war is going to disappear.

[Audience] …{?}…

[Dr. Rushdoony] Well now, interpret it any other way. It’s going to happen before the Second Coming, isn’t it? Obviously. It’s going to be in history.

[Audience]…{?}…

[Dr. Rushdoony] Well, where will it be then? In eternity?

[Audience] Yes.

[Dr. Rushdoony] But he goes on to say, in the latter part of his prophecy just how they’re going to live, in eternity, are men going to live a hundred and die and be accounted to have died young, you see? Are they going to die in the New Creation?

[Audience]…{?}…

[Dr. Rushdoony] Alright, let’s just turn over to Isaiah 65:20. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: (and it’ll be a long one) for the child shall die an hundred years old; (that’ll be dying in your childhood if you die at a hundred) but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed. In other words, it’s a sign of something’s wrong, it’s the judgment of God if you only live a hundred years. So it’s a world where there’s still death. It’s not beyond the Judgment, you see, beyond the Second Coming. It’s this side.

[Audience] …{?}…

[Dr. Rushdoony] Well, just read Alexander’s commentary, which is the great classic commentary on it. And there’s no way you can say that this has anything to do with eternity, does it? It’s in time. Because it speaks of death. They do die, they do get old. Now we don’t do that in Heaven or in the New Creation. Right?

[Audience]…{?}…

[Dr. Rushdoony] Emphatically. Yes. Read Kik’s{?} and read my ‘Thy Kingdom Come’, and I think it’s very obvious throughout the whole of Scripture. Very obvious. And it’s very obvious in the Early Church too, in their position. Now you had pre-millennial’s among the Judaizers and some who were not Judaizers. What you did not have in the early years was au-millennialism. It was pre or pro.

Yes.

[Audience] …{?}…

[Dr. Rushdoony] Right. You have it more fully in Matthew 24. Now, in my ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ I deal with Matthew 24 in great detail, as does Kik also, in his Matthew 24. And very clearly, when you understand that passage and exegete it faithfully, you find that it has reference to the fall of Jerusalem.

[Audience] …{?}…

[Dr. Rushdoony] No. The fullest statement of it is in Matthew 24. Now, in Matthew 24, you are told, emphatically, in the first part. They come to Him with two questions, these two questions are really one to them. He has said the Temple will be cast down, there shall be not one stone upon another. Well, for a good Jew, for the Temple to be destroyed meant the end of the world, so they assumed the coincidence of the fall of the Temple and the end of the world. So they asked, verse 3, tell us when these things be. And what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world? So they assume a coincidence of the fall of the Temple, and the Second Coming. So our Lord answers both questions and separates them first. Take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in My name and so on, rumors of war, nations will rise against nation, earthquakes, all these are the beginning of sorrows, affliction, they shall be delivered and so on, many false prophets shall rise, very definitely these things happened, false Messiahs and so on, in the Persecution. And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come.

The end of Jerusalem. And we do know that they did go to China with the Gospel, St. Thomas apparently made two trips and died on the second trip and his tomb is still in India. And we have various hints that this was the case, St. Paul says that the Word has gone out to all the world. All right, now. Then the Abomination of Desolation, the profanation of the Temple, the holy place, then let them which be in Judea, they’re talking about Judea, are they not, up to this point, not the world, flee into the mountain. Now, very clearly, the disciples, the Early Church saw this in terms of Judea. Jerusalem. And we are told that because they heeded our Lord’s warning here, in that fearful Jewish Roman war of 66 to 70 A.D., not one Christian lost his life. They heeded the signs and they left.

So, except those days, verse 22, shall be shortened, there shall no flesh be saved, but for the Elect sake, those days shall be shortened. In other words, because you as the Elect have relatives, loved ones in Jerusalem, the horror of this is shortened for you. For your sakes. Because the Romans themselves despaired of ever bringing the war to a conclusion. The last battle was fought overlooking the Dead Sea at Masada, and you may remember the story from Josephus, and it’s been confirmed, there’ve been recent excavations at Masada, conducted by Israel. They withheld them for three years up there, they had elaborate cisterns to catch every drop of water, they planted and grew food and lived on a minimal amount, and when they finally overwhelmed the fortress, there was only one woman and a baby alive, that was the resistance with which they fought.

Now, then, if any man say unto you, lo there is Christ, or there, believe it not, for there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, in so much that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very Elect. Now that is true, there were especially many false Messiah’s at that time, the most famous of which was Bartokva{?}, the son of the star, the Messiah, in other words.

Behold I have told you before, now he says, if they tell you I am coming, believe it not, for as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. When the lightning flashes you see it everywhere. It flashes from one end of the sky to the other. And he says, so shall my coming be. No one will have to tell you he is here, or he is come. The whole world shall see it. And then he says why this is all going on. For wherever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. In other words, the vultures, the beasts of prey, gather wherever there is a carcass, and so they’ll on dying Israel.

Taking advantage of their false faith and their false hopes. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with great power and glory. And He shall send his angels or messengers and so on, to gather His Elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Now, to understand this passage, first of all, what does it mean that the sun, the moon, the stars are shaken and darkened and so on? We have this imagery repeatedly in Scripture, and I list some of the instances of it in my book ‘Thy Kingdom Come’, on the chapter on Matthew 24. The first instance we have of their usage is in Joseph, in his dream. Now let me add, I am an Armenian, I come from that part of the world, this is more natural imagery to me because this kind of usage of the term, sun, moon and stars, I grew up with. What’s its meaning? It refers to earthly powers. So that when Joseph said he saw the sun, moon and stars bowing down to him, his father knew what his dream was about immediately, because, you mean to say that I and your mother and your brothers are going to bow down to you? You see, he got the point. Because the meaning is obvious in the near East. The imagery is that of earthly powers. The authorities over man. So when He says they’re going to be shaken, what He is saying is, not only shall Judea fall, Jerusalem, but the powers of the earth will undergo a great shaking. St. Paul says in Hebrews, there’s been one great shaking, and soon, with the fall of Jerusalem. The second great shaking of the nations shall begin, to prepare the way for the Kingship of Christ.

And so, God will send forth the summons to gather His Elect from the four corners of the world, then, He says, and this is very important to understanding this passage, now learn a parable of the fig tree. When his branch is yet tender, and puteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh, so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the door. Now, the fig tree putting forth its buds is not a sign of the end, but of the beginning. You see, it’s a sign that spring is here, and summer is coming, so it won’t be long before you begin the harvest of the world, gathering the Elect from all nations. So, what goes before is Judea, and it’s said to be Judea, and now we are told, summer, when all of this has happened, it’ll be just a sign of the budding of the tree. And the harvest is ahead. Well, you can go on with this chapter, but I refer you to my book and to Kik’s, for a further analysis of it.

[Audience] …{?}…

[Dr. Rushdoony] No. In verse, did you say 30? Oh yes, it has reference to judgment, again and again, let’s see, W.L. Clarke’s has written a very good study, I’m not sure of the title, but he’s an English scholar who wrote in the thirties on the, it’s either the ‘Sign of the Son of Man’, or the ‘Coming in Clouds’, an entire study of how this is used over and over again in the Old Testament as well as here, is a sign of judgment, the culmination is the last Judgment, but it is a sign of the repeated judgments of God in history.

[Audience] Thank you very much, that was very helpful and ..{?}

[Dr. Rushdoony] Our time is almost over, but let me just refer you to another Psalm which is a favorite of mine, Psalm 149. I like this one. This rings with victory. And anytime you begin to doubt the victory of God and your calling, resist. Praise ye the Lord, Psalm 149. Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints. Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp. For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation. Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two edged sword in their hand; To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people;

To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; To execute upon them the judgment written: this honor have all his saints. Praise ye the LORD.

Why, just in the latter part, very briefly, a verse to take comfort in is verse4, for the Lord taketh pleasure in His people. God takes pleasure in us. That’s wonderful. Very, very reassuring. So at times when you feel discouraged and downhearted, remember that. What man is doing and what the Church may be doing to you is not as important as this, the Lord taketh pleasure in His people. Rejoice in that. He will beautify the meek, with salvation, the blessed meek who shall inherit the earth. Now there’s a post-millennial verse for you, and delight themselves in the abundance of peace. The meek are the ones who are not mousy, but were the harnessed, the tamed of God. A horse is no good until he’s broken to saddle or to harness, then he’s useful. And the blessed meek are those who are harnessed, tamed of God. And so we are told that we are to be joyful and glory, because God takes pleasure in us.

Let them sing aloud upon their beds. That is magnificent. During the Persecution of the Covenanters, there were some of the saints who were in prison, who sang aloud on their beds, in prison. Made their guards think they were crazy. Why? They knew that though they were sentenced to death, their cause was going to triumph. And that Christ the King would prevail. And so let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand. We are soldiers of Christ. So get ready to conquer and to do in the others. To execute vengeance upon the heathen and punishment upon the peoples, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron. To execute upon them the judgment written, the decreed judgment. And this, this honor have all His saints. Marvelous. God has done us a single honor. He said we are going to be the conquerors of the whole earth. Now, I like, in closing, the verse, what was it, of justice when He declared, expect the great things, or was it Carrie{?}, yes, Carrie{?} said, expect great things from God and do great things for God. What Justin said was, he had the same kind of faith when he was in prison. He was thrown into a filthy dungeon and he had been so confident in his hope concerning victory, and one of his Buddhist tormentors who heard him speak and despise him, looked down at him in the dungeon one time and mocked him saying, and what are your prospects now? Justin called back up, as bright as the promises of God.

Well, we are…