Power, Family, Community and Law

Philemon and Restitution: Q & A

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Sociology

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 12

Track: 43

Dictation Name: RR114A2

Date: 1974

Before we begin reading Philemon, just a few words of reminder of something that I said yesterday. You will recall that I spoke about the fact that the word ‘forgiveness’ as we use it today is not as scripture uses it. Words do change their meanings. When people change their faith, they often change the meanings of words. It’s sometimes amusing to read old documents and to see how much words have changed. I was startled, when some years ago, I was reading something from the days shortly before Shakespeare, to find someone speaking of ‘my silly wife.’ Well, I realized after some further reading and then some study of the word, that ‘silly,’ (check this in the English or Oxford dictionary) originally meant ‘beloved.’ So when the person of that era spoke of ‘my silly wife,’ he meant ‘my beloved wife.’ I wouldn’t advise you to call your wife silly now.

Words have changed their meaning. Well, one word which has changed its meaning, among many in the Bible, as a result of romanticism, as a result of emotionalizing everything; now this has been one of the things that Arminianism has done. It has taken the theological content out of words and it has emotionalized them. Forgiveness in the New Testament, in its root meaning is not only a totally legal word, but refers to a legal fact--charges deferred because legal satisfaction has been rendered. So forgiveness is not a personal thing but a theological thing. God forgives us because the charges have been dropped through the satisfaction rendered by Jesus Christ.

One other usage of forgive is, charges deferred for the time being as (on the word of the cross), “Father, forgive them.” (Defer the charges for the time being.) “For they know not what they do.” Similarly, when we forgive one another, it is not within our province to forgive or to withhold forgiveness in terms of our feeling. It must be in terms of the Word of God, because it is not only our relationship to God that must be governed by His Word but our relationship one with another; the relationship of Christians one to another, and to the pastor, to those outside the faith, of husbands and wives, of parents and children, all relationships are to be governed by the Word of God.

Now in Philemon, we have an instance in scripture of forgiveness. So let’s read Philemon first of all, very carefully so that we can understand exactly what the situation is.

“1 Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our dearly beloved, and fellowlabourer,

2 And to our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in thy household:

3 Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers,

5 Hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all saints;

6 That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.

7 For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother.

8 Wherefore, though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient,

9 Yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.

10 I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds:

11 Which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me:”

Now let’s stop there a moment. Remember I mentioned in passing that in Old Testament times, and of course New Testament times, age gave authority, and Paul wants to exercise his authority in this instance. He is appealing to love, but he is also asserting his authority. He says, “I am Paul, the aged.” I have some wisdom. I have authority, as an apostle, an aged one, a prisoner of Jesus Christ. And so in a very painful situation, writing a letter to Philemon about a problem that was a source of deep and intense personal hurt to Philemon, Paul feels it necessary to exercise his authority and to cite his authority in a number of ways. Moreover, he speaks of Onesimus as his son, “whom I have begotten in my bonds.”

It’s an ironic fact that the Catholics call their priests “Father.” The old usage used to be “Mister.” Where did they pick up the term father for their priests? Well, they picked it up in America. From whom? The Puritans. Now, this may come as a shock to you, but in the Colonial Era among the Puritans, the pastor was called “Father,” the members called one another “Brothers” and “Sisters.” He was their father in the faith. And they were brothers and sisters. We still retain, in many churches, the term “Brother” So-and-so” and “Sister” So-and-so, but we’ve dropped “Father” because the Catholics adopted it from the Puritans. So the Protestants promptly dropped it because the Catholics were using it. But St. Paul often speaks this way, as having been a father in the faith to people whom he had led to the Lord.

And so, he speaks now of Onesimus, whom he has “begotten in my bonds,” so though he was chained and in prison in Rome, he was able to function still as an apostle of Jesus Christ and had become the spiritual father to “my son, Onesimus…which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to me and to thee.” What does he mean by that?

Well, it’s a play on the name Onesimus. Onesimus means “unprofitable or useless.” We don’t know what Onesimus’ parents named him. You remember yesterday I mentioned the fact that names in Bible times were definitions. They described a man, and a man’s name changed if his character changed. And that’s why Abraham manifested his faith when he carried a name, for which he was going to be ridiculed, a name which God named him, “Father of many.” Whatever the parents had named Onesimus, we don’t know, but he had earned another name: useless. He had become a slave because of his sinfulness. And now, he had fallen into trouble in Rome, whether in prison or out of prison, apparently out of prison at the time, that Paul encountered him, he became converted, and had become no longer useless, but very useful to St. Paul, so that St. Paul, having ministered to him and having become his father in the faith, now was being ministered to by his son, Useful, though still known as “Useless” (Onesimus). And a very great love had developed between the spiritual father and the spiritual son and hence this letter.

And so, he sends Onesimus, the slave, back to Philemon, the owner, with this letter,

“12 Whom I have sent again: thou therefore receive him, that is, mine own bowels…” You’re receiving a part of me, a very intense, a very personal part of me, and I want you to remember that, Philemon.

“13 Whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel.” I need Onesimus. But because he still is tied to you, he is in debt to you, I feel duty-bound to return him to you. “Without thy mind, would I do nothing.”

Deeply as Paul felt attached and great as he felt his authority was, and he’s throwing his weight around here and later on in the letter, he knows exactly what he wants Philemon to do with Onesimus. He virtually orders Philemon to do as he required, but he still sends him back because in person, Onesimus must have forgiveness from Philemon. The account must be cleared, satisfaction must be rendered. Now, he makes suggestions. He makes it clear what he has in mind, but he doesn’t say ‘This is the way it is. Wipe it out. I need this man, so forget it.’ No. There has to be a personal contact between these two.

“14 But without thy mind would I do nothing, that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly.

15 For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him forever;”

He left you, he ran away from you, was a run-away slave, and as a thief, as that comes out, but it was in the Providence of God that he left you for a season, under very painful circumstances so that he might come again to you forever, being united with you now in the Lord. Now, here is the key verse, 16, which opens up a deep and grievous situation.

“16 Not now as a servant,” (or a slave) “but above a servant,” (or a slave) “a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord?”

Now think that over. What was the relationship between Philemon and Onesimus? He is sending him back now as a spiritual brother, when previously, he was only a brother in the flesh. Now think of that situation. Doesn’t take much imagination to realize what an ugly situation that had been. Onesimus and Philemon were brothers—physically brothers, borne of the same mother; brothers in the flesh, but not in the spirit. Philemon was the believer, Onesimus was useless, the no-account brother, a slave now to his godly brother. Now, we don’t know how that situation developed, but I don’t think it is out of line to suppose that here were two brothers, one who became godly, who was provident, who worked, who prospered, who had a church in his home, and the other brother, a no-account who’d gotten in trouble, no doubt sold for his debts into slavery, had been bought by his brother and made a slave in his own household, because it apparently grieved him that his brother was a slave. I don’t think that’s stretching the imagination, because it took some situation like that for a brother to own a brother. A Christian concerned about his brother buying him. But the brother, the slave, robs him and runs off to Rome.

Well, you can imagine then why it was necessary for Paul to write this letter as he sends Philemon back with it---ah, sends Onesimus back with it. If you were Philemon, you would be intensely bitter about “Useless.” You had perhaps tried to help him, bailed him out of trouble more than once, finally bailed him out of slavery by buying him and taking him into your household, and the only return you got from it was that he robbed you and ran off. You would justifiably be very resentful of your brother. But St. Paul says, he is now our brother, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

“17 If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself.”

Now this certainly puts a high estimate on “Useless” does it not? It indicates how dramatic a change there was in the man. St. Paul give Onesimus a status, I don’t recall he gives of those who’ve worked with him. “Receive him as myself.” He is my son, spiritually. He is as a part of my life.

“18 If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account;”

So, St. Paul says, if the restitution which is a part of forgiveness must be made immediately, if your bitterness is such that you cannot wait, alright, Onesimus now has nothing, no opportunity to work it off. Put it on my account. I, Paul, will pay it.

“19 I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it: albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides.”

Now, what this refers to, we don’t know. Some have said he owed his salvation to Philemon, but had it been his salvation, St. Paul would have referred to that. Probably he had been converted by St. Paul’s ministry, but St. Paul would have said, you too are my son in the faith, or would have spoken of it openly. What Philemon owed to him, we are not told, but very definitely he did. And so St. Paul brings this to his mind so he will be patient with Onesimus. So that there can be the opportunity for Onesimus to work off, somehow, because slaves could, after their working hours, earn money and slaves very commonly earned their freedom that way, and could repay him. Or, if not, St. Paul makes it clear, I will repay it! So one way or another, the repayment, the restitution for forgiveness, St. Paul says, is going to be there. But he also reminds the very bitter Philemon who has been deeply hurt, because his brother, whom he had cared for in one scrape after another, who he’d bought back out of slavery and made a slave in his own household, a favored position, had now robbed him.

“20 Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord: refresh my bowels in the Lord.

21 Having confidence in thy obedience I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say.

22 But withal prepare me also lodging: for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you.”

So, as St. Paul asks for the forgiveness of Onesimus, he never loses fact of the necessity of restitution. He is ready to assume it, if Philemon requires it immediately. He has signed a note here in the letter. This letter is an I.O.U. sent to Philemon. I am responsible for the debts of Onesimus. Now, the account is cleared. One way or another it’s going to be cleared, I assure you Philemon. And I ask that you pray for me that I shall be delivered and can return.

“23 There salute thee Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus;

24 Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellowlabourers.

25 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.”

It’s a very brief letter. And yet, a very beautiful one, as it describes to us a practical example of forgiveness in the New Testament, a practical example of how the Christians worked in that day.

Remember I had told you how the Christians were given to rescuing the abandoned babies, caring for the aged and thereby making many, many converts, distressing the Romans because they were growing so rapidly through this kind of activity. And here we see an instance of it at the very beginning of the Church: Philemon, rescuing his brother Onesimus from slavery. And the outcome of it, through a strange and a providential set of circumstances, Philemon [Onesimus] the no-good brother runs away, winds up in Rome where Paul is a prisoner and becomes a convert, and Paul’s beloved son.

Are there any questions now about this? First of all on Philemon and then we can go on to other subjects.

Yes.

[Audience] I wonder if you’d go to I John 1:9 and discuss this principle in light of that verse.

[Rushdoony] Yes. I John 1:9. Yes. Now, it is important for us to turn to the 6th verse and begin there and read on.

[I John 1] “6If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

Now of course, the point here is the believer. The believer as he sins against God and the sins are ‘hamartia,’ that’s the word used here. Well, I’m going to be dealing with this and a few of you will be hearing me tomorrow night in Memphis, but one of the very important distinctions made in scripture, which doesn’t come through in the English, because we have one word for sin, just as we have one word for love, and in the Koine Greek, there are three words: eros (which refers to sexual love, but is not used in the New Testament), philio (as in Philadelphia, brotherly love, human love one toward another) and agape (which is the grace of God as it reveals itself unto man, the gracious love of God). And this leads to a problem sometimes, you see, because we only have the one translation, and when John reports that our Lord says to Peter, “Peter, son of Jonah, lovest thou me?” there is an alternate use of these words. First, it’s agape, then philia. Now here, the word is ‘hamartia’ rather than ‘anomia,’ a-n-o-m-i-a, can be translated and sometimes is, ‘lawlessness,’ as in Thessalonians, “the mystery of iniquity.” And it has reference to man’s total denial of God and of His Law. It is being anti-Law, anti-God. And so, John says, that if we say we have no sin (hamartia, which is particular sin), we are a liar. But he who has been born again cannot commit sin (anomia). If you turn over to [ I John ] 3:6, “Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.” Well, there the word is ‘anomia,’ whosoever commits lawlessness, is anti-Law, anti-God, is guilty of anomia. But in the first chapter, the 8th verse, “If we say that we have no sin” (hamartia) “we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” Now hamartia is being off-target. Now that’s what characterizes us as Christians. Here is what God has set before us. We try to meet His standard, we try to obey Him. We’re often off-target. But we’re trying to move toward the target. Anomia is being anti-God, anti-target. So there’s a difference between being hamartia (off-target), which the Christian often is, but the Christian is never anomia (anti-Law, anti-God).

So if we confess our sins, if we confess to God that, Lord I have fallen short of that which you required me to do, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, because we have atonement already for all our sins, past, present and future through Jesus Christ, so that we stand justified in the sight of God. When God looks at us He sees the righteousness of Christ only.

Now, tonight in what I believe will be the most important aspect of what I’ve been talking about, I’ll be dealing with this aspect in greater detail. But when Christ looks at us, He sees us as we are, and He deals with us, to reprimand us, to rebuke us, and through the Holy Spirit to bring us back into line. And so, He cleanses us from all unrighteousness when we confess our sins to Him. So we are innocent always in the sight of God because we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. But in Christ, it’s as the blood and the body heals an infection on my finger; I don’t cut off my finger, the blood will heal it. So now, as a member of Christ, when I am off-target, I confess my sins, my shortcomings, my failures, to Him and His healing blood which affected my atonement, cleanses me of all unrighteousness.

So this has reference to God, not to our neighbor, you see. Does that help explain the matt-

[Audience] How do you spell that word? Ha-ma—

[Rushdoony] Hamartia? In English you would spell it h-a-m-a-r-t-i-a. Hamartia. And anomia, a-n-o-m-i-a.

Yes?

[Audience] In Matthew 6:14, 15

[Rushdoony] Matthew 6,

[Audience] …verses 14 and 15

[Rushdoony] Yes. Fourteen and fifteen. “14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15 but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses”

Now, the word forgive means exactly what I described, charges dropped because satisfaction has been rendered. I must forgive whenever anyone meets God’s terms. I cannot withhold it. If I do, then God withholds His grace from me and judges me, even if I am a believer. God will hold me accountable and will punish me. So, we are to forgive when anyone seeks our forgiveness, making restitution, seventy times seven.

I mentioned to someone that Fairfax Christian School, Rev. Robert L. Thoburn in Fairfax, VA, instituted this biblical doctrine of forgiveness; restitution. If a student destroyed a pencil playing with it, and snapped it, they had to bring two pencils. If they wasted paper, they had to bring a whole tablet to make restitution. That changed the attitude of the students, and the parents were delighted with it when they found out about it, and they instituted it in the homes. And he’s continually getting delighted comments from parents as to how it has helped things in the home. The children are more respectful of property. They’re more careful about their behavior because they must make restitution. And as a result, the situation between parents and children, between brothers and sisters has become much more congenial. God’s way works! It’s the only way that does.

Yes?

[Audience] I can see problems with believers and non-believers in a work situation with demanding restitution for the non-believer to pay us {?} every little thing wrong and we would tend to say, ‘just forget it, it’s okay,’ for our Christian witness. Can you in the same situation, saying, {?}, now do this, {?} now a …. {?} and they go away….

[Rushdoony] Alright, we are told not to cast pearls before swine and holy things before dogs. So there are sometimes that it’s useless to say anything to anyone. But there are times when someone who is ungodly will say, ‘I’m sorry. I there anything I can do?’ And you can just tell them, ‘Yes. You can make restitution.’ That’s the biblical way. And I know that it does work. In one amusing situation, one young man who came to the faith through attending our meetings, had a stockbroker who failed to follow his instructions and it cost him a couple of hundred dollars and so he was very angry. So the stockbroker got a little bit, and said, ‘Well, I told you I’m sorry. What more can I do about it?’ And so he said, ‘You can make restitution.’ He said, ‘What’s that?’ He said, ‘Well, I’m a Christian. I believe this is the way God wants us to operate.’ And he explained it. The man said, ‘I don’t like it, but it makes sense!’ [Laughter] And he did! He actually did! And he has since become a Christian, the stockbroker has. So it was quite a remarkable episode.

And of course, the man who made the witness about restitution was very happy because he got double restitution. Came out ahead! He’d explained that this is a penalty, you know, and you should give it to the Lord, the—the fine, and he says, ‘Well, I’ll give it to you. You do what you want with it.’

Any other questions?

Well, if there are no further questions in this area, in any other area that we’ve been dealing with the last couple of days?

Yes?

[Audience] How can the forgiveness, with the restitution, go in and {?}. I’ve heard some people say, uh, that when Jesus was talking about, you know, give and do not expect repayment and when sued for one coat, giving your cloak also…

[Rushdoony] Yes,

[Audience] ….one mile, to….

[Rushdoony] Very good. Yes. Now, that’s an important passage to understand, again, from the Sermon on the Mount. That is in Matthew 6:38-42. [Matthew 5:38-42]

“38Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:

39 But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.

41 And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.

42 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.”

Now first of all, our Lord does not set aside the principle of justice, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. He makes it clear also that He has come not to set the Law aside, but to fulfill it and the word ‘fulfill’ has the force in Greek, ‘put into force.’ However, the eye for an eye cannot always apply. ‘Eye for an eye’ means the punishment must be commensurate with the crime. There has to be a balance between the two.

For one thing, you cannot always have the principle of justice in purely personal relationships because if you, say in a husband and wife relationship, which is intensely personal, say it’s got to be tit-for-tat on everything, you destroy it. It’s a very personal one. Now this doesn’t mean it shouldn’t also have justice to it. No personal relationship can thrive on injustice. But in purely personal relationships, in a number of passages, our Lord makes it clear that love is to prevail, that between husband and wife, you aren’t always keeping accounts. It isn’t a relationship purely of justice. It’s also a very personal one.

But here there’s something more that our Lord is talking about. There are times when you cannot expect justice because there is no justice. Now how in the world, if you are, say, in the Soviet Union, are you going to say, look, Mr. Commissar, there is a principle of justice here and you’ve got to abide by it. You can’t expect it from him.

Now the words that are used here are words that have reference to the compulsory draft that prevailed in the Roman Empire, whereby anyone could, at any time, who was a government official, lay his hand on you and take your cloak, compel you to carry a load for a mile; forced draft in one form or another. As a matter of fact, the word in verse 41, ‘compel’ is a very ancient word for this forced draft that goes back to the Greeks who borrowed it from the Persians when Alexander took Persia. So from the Persian it went into the Greek and then in to Roman usage and it was a common word for compulsory draft at the time of our Lord.

So here is a situation where the Jews are under the Roman rule. They were working towards revolution which broke out in 66 A.D. And our Lord is saying render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. If any man compel thee, if any man sue thee in an unjust court, don’t go to court. Settle out of court with him. And if anyone is going to demand something of thee, give it to him. Now, I believe our Lord is giving very sound, godly, practical advice. I believe scripture is common sense throughout. I don’t believe that people are right when they take and absolutize something to apply to all situations. They take it out of context. I don’t think this applies to the Christian situation. It applies to the ungodly.

To give you an example of this, which I applied deliberately on one occasion, I was not feeling too well, this was once when I was on the Indian reservation, and I was in a mining camp, and the word came through of a forest fire. And I knew that everybody was going to be drafted, so I didn’t wait to be drafted; I went to the ranger and volunteered. Well, that meant I was there, on the firing line, or the fire line, a couple of hours before they had rounded up everybody by trucks and took them up there. Well, the ranger appreciated it and as a result, everybody who grumbled when they were rounded up, and he knew who grumbled because the man who was rounding them up for him got the worst, the dirtiest jobs! And as soon as relief was along the way, he just put me on the control line where I had to check the burning trees to make sure they didn’t spread to adjacent areas. I had it easy for the rest of the night after the first hour. And he came around and made sure when the food was being distributed that I got the choicest morsels of food to eat. They brought some roast beef along and he cut some big slabs—thicker than the slices of bread—and handed it to me and said, “Here, take it. You’ll get hungry before the night is over.” Now, you see, I was ready to go the extra mile. I came out better than those who grumbled. They were a mess by morning! And Elmer Hall and I, who both—he accompanied me. We both went and volunteered right off the bat; we sat around and just patrolled and told stories and pleasant time all night.

Now you see, the Lord’s advice was very sound. I wasn’t feeling well enough to get up on the line. I was on the line more than once in other fires. But it was a similar case. There was a power. Anyone who resisted could be put into a prison immediately. And they didn’t hesitate to do it. That’s the law out there. So if you’re ever out there and a ranger stops you, say, “By all means, I’m ready to help!” You’re better off if you do, believe me, because his power is absolute there, it’s law, his word. Now that’s what our Lord is talking about.

Yes.

[Audience] Sir, how would you apply that in Vietnam, where at night time the Communists control in an area and they demand you to go a mile but if you’re too enthusiastic, comes to daytime, government troops come back, it may do your life and, of course the government demands you go another mile the other direction!

[Rushdoony] Yes. Well, my advice is, stay out of Vietnam. [Laughter]

[Audience] I was thinking of the peasants caught in the middle!

[Rushdoony] Yes.

First of all, the peasants there have a very ugly situation indeed. It’s ruled by the Viet Cong at night and by the Vietnamese during the day. And the only thing they can do, and they will not do, is to migrate. There is no life possible under those circumstances. But they won’t pick up and leave. They tried to halt between two opinions and to be on neither side and they end up, those poor peasants, with both the government and the Viet Cong hostile toward them and treating them with total contempt. I feel very sorry for the situation of the Vietnamese peasants, but their basic philosophy is, I don’t want to take a stand. And it never works anywhere. This is why we’re in trouble increasingly in this country. Nobody wants to take a stand. Let’s have somebody do it for us. But don’t ask me!

The same situation, by the way, is developing in Ethiopia. I’ve talked to a missionary who returned from there not too long ago. It’s ruled by Communists by night and by government officials during the day and you paid two sets of taxes. And it’s moving toward disaster and when Haile Selassie dies, it’s going to be hell on earth there. But the majority of the people don’t want to be on either side. They just want the problem to go away, and it never does that way. That’s why it’s building up so badly there.

Yes.

[Audience] The problem I had… {?}

[Rushdoony] Could you speak up a bit?

[Audience] Yes. Luke 20:25…

[Rushdoony] Luke 20:25… “ And he said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and unto God the things which be God's.”

Yes.

[Audience] And then, next to that, Matthew 12:30

[Rushdoony] Matthew 12…?

[Audience] 30.

[Rushdoony] [Matthew] 12:30, “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.”

[Audience] Where does a Christian draw the line?

[Rushdoony] Yes. Now, God requires us to render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s. Now, sometimes Caesar is very unjust, but Caesar can also be a punishment for our sins. George Washington, when people in Virginia began to rebel against the compulsory tithe, was very unhappy. Now, granted, I don’t like the Virginia system as it existed in that day, but he recognized the implications. You either took care of social financing through the tithe, or the State was going to do it. And Washington recognized the menace of civil government if it grew.

But people have chosen Caesar rather than God. Well, if they are not going to render to God the things that are God’s, Caesar is going to be more and more powerful. But they’re going to have to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.

Now, the only way to limit the power of Caesar is to render more fully to God the things that are God’s.

The tithe, as I indicated, is God’s means of social financing. If we tithe, we will take back power form Caesar. Today Caesar is losing a key area of power in the country through the Christian schools. Now, if we begin to take over one area after another through our tithing, taking care of our own, our parents, the needy in our circles, the aged, and so on, we’re going to have less and less to render to Caesar. We’ll always have something to render. Well, he that is not with me is against me, surely. But he that is not with the Lord is going to make a god out of Caesar, but God does not excuse him thereby from obedience to Caesar. If we don’t like Welfare, the answer is not to say, let’s abolish Welfare, but to tithe and to create Christian agencies that will minister to it. So, the average Conservative is off base in that his answer is, well, let’s end Welfare, let’s end this, let’s end that; but that’s not the answer. You have to provide something, some answer.

You know, I’ve always like the comment of someone who was in Kennedy’s cabinet, who said, the average Conservative who gripes about government taxing too much and welfare people taking too much is somebody who went to public schools on a government school bus, on government road and went to college on the GI Bill, and still feels that people are demanding too much from the government. I think that was well stated. God requires us to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. And we’ve given too much to Caesar. We’re going to have to render it to him until we render unto God the things that are God’s.

Does that help clarify it, or confuse it?

[Audience] Well, the… {?}

[Rushdoony] In what?

[Audience] {?} to be in the mil. I {?} were {?} not to.

[Rushdoony] Alright, very simple. Tithe. Tithe. The more Christians tithe, the more you create Christian schools, Christian welfare agencies through the Deacon’s Fund, Christian colleges, Christian hospitals, Christian agencies for every kind of need, and the less the government has to do. The answer is not in revolution, it’s in changed people who render to God the things that are God’s. There’s no other way. People tried over and over and over again to change it.

Friend of mine, who is a State Senator in California, very fine Christian, thoroughly reformed, he’s running for U.S. Senate right now, Bill Richardson, comes from one of the most conservative districts in the State of California, it’s called a John Birch District. And Bill told me, he carefully framed a questionnaire and sent it to his constituency to see where they stood on issue. About 85% of them declared themselves to be Conservatives. But in the questions which were designed to show their attitudes without them knowing it, 75% were Socialists—75% were Socialists! And he said, it’s a very discouraging fact, you see; because with their lips they were Conservatives but their basic mental attitudes were in the other camp. Now, he also told me, he said, the amount of legislation that is asked of me up here by people and of everyone, from the furthest-out Liberal to the most Conservative is so overwhelming in the direction of further governmental powers, that if we did what people requested in any one session, we would be in Communism; because people ask for things without knowing the implications.

Now, there is not going to be any change in that situation until there are changed men. This is the key. So St. Paul says that he requires every man to stay in the condition in which he was when he was called, when he was converted. But he says, if you have an opportunity to be free, choose rather to be free. But you’re not to be revolutionists, in other words. You cannot change the world by changing the forms. Jacques Ellul, a French scholar, who’s not of our persuasion at all, has nonetheless in a book, pointed out that every revolution results in a more reactionary regime. It worsens the situation because political action, whether peaceful or revolutionary, solves nothing. It’s only conversion; regeneration. As I said last night, the old proverb has it, you can’t have a good omelet with bad eggs.

So, Christ requires men to obey Caesar. If Caesar is their god, they must obey their god. When we reduce Caesar to no more than God’s ordained ministry of justice, it will be because we have rendered unto God the things that are God’s. This is our failure. Most men are against the Lord today, the overwhelming majority; well, they have no right about complaining. They’re getting what they deserve. But they want better than they deserve.

I was very much amused. I was at one college last year, February (or I guess it was this past February. I forget now). Any rate, there was quite a group of scholars from all over the world, each of us were asked to give a position paper, and one of them was Enoch Powell. You know who Enoch Powell is, of England. As a speaker, he isn’t much, but as a debater, he is the most sensational thing I have ever seen. And (oh, I forget the name, was on the tip of my tongue) the economist who was an economist in, for FDR in his last term and then for Truman and for Kennedy and for Johnson; even more important than Samuelson. Any rate, they were in a debate and it was really something to see, because Powell cut the other man to ribbons, so that he was, he went into a tantrum, he was so hurt at the laughter that Powell was getting at his expense. But he launched at one point, into a glowing vision of what the world would be like if he and other planners could control it. And it was Totalitarianism—total control. And he said we were too stupid to understand it, but he said, if you only realized—this was his culminating point—if you allowed us to do this, you can eat your cake then, and have it too. Now, when people believe that—as most people do today, they’ve blown their minds. There’s nothing that can help them, except the regenerating power of Jesus Christ.

Well, our time is up. Let us conclude with prayer.

Our Lord and our God, we thanks unto Thee that Thou art our Lord and Savior, that through the blood of Jesus Christ we have been made a new creation. By Thy grace, enable us, our Father, so to use all that we are and all that we have that we might conquer one area of life after another and dedicate it to Thee, that we might through schools, through churches, through missions, through every kind of endeavor, bring men to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, conquer one realm of life after another and become faithful servants unto Thee. We thank Thee our God, that we have the privilege of serving Thee. We thank Thee our Father, that nothing spoken unto Thee, nor Thy Word proclaimed in Thy Spirit shall ever return unto Thee void. And so, our God, we praise Thee. In Jesus’ name. Amen.