Studies in the Incarnation

The Annunciation

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Doctrinal Studies

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 5 of 7

Track: #67

Dictation Name: RR116C5

Date: 1960-1970’s

Almighty God our heavenly Father we give thanks unto Thee for the joy of salvation. We thank Thee that Jesus Christ has come into the world, is our savior; that in Him we have the blessed assurance of peace and victory. Make us strong our Father in this faith, confirm us in our hope, establish us in Jesus Christ. That we might move in the confidence and in the victory that is His, knowing that we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. In Jesus name, Amen.

Our scripture lesson is from the gospel according to Saint Luke, the first chapter verses twenty-six through thirty-eight, the annunciation.

26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,

27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.

28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.

30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God.

31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.

32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:

33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

34 Then said Mary unto the angel, how shall this be, seeing I know not a man?

35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

36 And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.

37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.

38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

It is difficult to approach the story of our Lord’s virgin birth without a sense of holy awe. It is one of the most moving and inspiring of all stories. Luke tells us that in the sixth month the angel of Gabriel came to Mary in Nazareth, the six month of what? The six month of Elizabeth’s conception. Elizabeth a kin’s woman of Mary was a greatly older woman. Well long in years after a lifetime of barrenness and childlessness God had announced that through her the forerunner, the prophet who should prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah would be born.

The birth of John the Baptist was announced in the solemn grandeur of the temple. But that of Jesus in a humble home in Galilee. And yet, the beauty and the holiness which accompanies that annunciation and the events that follow is unrivaled in all of history. A hymn written in the very earliest times of the Christian church echoes the sense of reverence which the church has felt as it has sung of that event- Ave Maria. The song in its original form is purely Biblical. The third portion which begins “Holy Mary, mother of God pray for us” was added in the 15th century and was not even officially in use until 1568. But the original form of the hymn, the balance of it, the first two parts, comes from the earliest days of the Christian church.

Mary we are told was a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. In those days in Israel betrothal, or we would say engagement, was the legal act of marriage. The only way a betrothal could be broken was by divorce. The property settlement was made at that time, the property was vested in the future husband, the girl’s property and although they did not live together until at least the year was passed, they were legally man and wife. Commonly during that year the young man earned the dowry, which was to go to the bride to be a part of the family capital, her treasury, and the inheritance of her children. Thus any unfaithfulness on the part of a betrothed girl was according to the law punishable by death. This is clearly stated in Deuteronomy 22:23-34.

The angel came into her and said “Hail thou that are highly favored, the Lord is with Thee. Blessed art thou among woman”. The reaction of Mary to the appearance of the angel Gabriel and this salutation perhaps comes through to us a little more clearly because the wording is unfamiliar enough to give us a little bit of a sharper focus on it. In the translation by the great Lutheran scholar Lentzke {?} in his commentaries he translates verses 29 and 30 thus “but she was greatly perturbed at the word, and began to argue with herself of what kind this greeting might be. And the angel said to her “stop being afraid Mary, for thou didst find favor with God”” and then Gabriel went on to make the great announcement, “And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son, and shall call His name Jesus”. The name Jesus means “God is our Salvation” He shall be great and shall be called the son of the highest, or the Son of the most high. And the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David, He who shall be born of you miraculously shall be the Son of God, very God of very God. But He shall also be the Son of David, very man of very man. And He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever and of His kingdom there shall be no end. He shall be the Messianic kingdom, the King, the Messianic king foretold by David and the prophets of old. And He shall also be the eternal king, King of kings and Lord of lords; eternal King, so that His rule shall be over time and over eternity, over this world and over the world to come.

Then said Mary unto the angel “how shall this be? Seeing I know not a man.” Mary was not only a woman full of grace, but also a woman with a down to earth realism, and this real holiness. And she realized immediately this glorious miracle presented for her a tremendous problem. She was legally wed to someone, and if she became pregnant she was liable to the death penalty if her husband filed charges against her. She knew she would be wide open to gossip, to accusations. And indeed we do know for a time, according to Saint Matthew, Joseph thought of putting her away until God spoke to Him in a vision. “And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Not a word said as to how she is to protect herself, simply the announcement, and Mary’s responsive duty to receive it by faith.

The virgin birth is the greatest miracle of scripture. It is in a very real respect the key miracle because we cannot take away the supernaturalistic of our Lord’s birth without destroying Christianity. Then we reduce the faith to the level of all paganism’s because the essence of all paganism is that a man’s apotheosis, man becoming God. But the essence of the Christmas story is that God became man, this was an act of shear grace on God’s part and man’s salvation is not man becoming God as it is in all of paganism; but God became man, and for our salvation assumed the fullness of humanity, fulfilled the full requirements of the law, died as our sin bearer and arose as he who conquers sin and death for us.

“And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.” Here Gabriel in effect hints to Mary “go to your cousin Elizabeth, she too is the object of a miracle. And rejoice with her and she with you, and that which God has done.”

“For with God nothing shall be impossible.” This then is a tremendous declaration. Problems? Yes, of a certainty. God cannot enter into this sinful world without the sinful world striking back. Men cannot take a course of holiness and truth and righteousness without the world lashing out at them in hatred. Problems, of a certainty, but with God nothing shall be impossible.

“And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.” Here we see the greatness of Mary’s faith “Behold the handmaid of the Lord”. The word handmaid has a beauty, and old fashioned ring to it. It takes away to a certain extent the literalness of the word and its meaning, it means simply “behold the female slave of the Lord” and with that statement she avows her total submission to whatever God does, whatever God brings upon her. “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to Thy word”. Here we have true faith, this total submission; and there cannot be true faith without this kind of submission. And where men pick and choose at God’s word and declare “I will believe this, and I will not believe that” they have denied scripture and set themselves as Gods above God; as judges over His word. But true faith everywhere will say even as Mary “behold the handmaid of the Lord” or “the manservant of the Lord” “Be it unto me according to Thy word”.

This was the annunciation of our Lord’s birth. His birth marked the beginning of a new creation, of the new heavens and the new earth. He was the second Adam born from above, come to usher in a new world, that new world rose day by day whenever a Christian enters into the kingdom, is converted, he is born into the citizenship of that new creation so that we have, as it were, a life in two worlds. We belong to a world by virtue of our birth in the old Adam which is sentenced to death. By virtue of our rebirth in Jesus Christ we belong with that new creation which shall grow and abound unto eternal life and to the fullness of all hope, all the promises of life. Moreover the birth of our Lord sets forth God’s continuity in His work. He did not destroy the old creation to make way for the new Adam, and the new world. He used the old to create the new, Mary a daughter of Adam to give birth to Christ, the second Adam. And there is the same continuity in our lives. He uses the material and the framework of the old man in us, the old Adam to create the new man in Christ.

One scripture declares “behold I make all things new.” This is what the Lord means; it is to be understood in terms of this continuity, of the new or renewed work of creation in terms of Christ. So that we are fully recognizable in terms of what we were before we became members of Christ. And yet, wholly new in that we have a new heart, a new life, a new perspective. We are fully recognizable, and yet truly new. And so is the new creation which is our destiny, it is now beyond our imagination. But when we enter into it, it shall be fully recognizable and we shall know it to be the fulfillment of all that is in our being, of all our hopes of all the potentialities of nature and of man. “Behold, I make all things new.”

This then is the glorious annunciation of our Lord’s birth, declared unto Mary and in Mary, finding a response which is the type of true faith “behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to Thy word.” Let us pray.

Almighty God our heavenly Father we give thanks unto Thee for the glory of Thy word and of Thy so great salvation made known to us through Jesus Christ Thy Son and Savior. We thank Thee our Father that He was born of us, of the Virgin Mary. He’s very man of very man, in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. But we thank Thee our Father that He is also very God of very God, the Eternal One, and that in Him we have access unto the throne of Grace. Our God we thank Thee in Jesus name, Amen.

Are there any questions now, yes?

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] I’ve seen it once and I forgot it promptly, so I couldn’t tell you a thing about it now. I know I’ve seen and that’s all I can say. I’d even forgotten that Amal was a cripple until you mentioned it.

[Same audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] I’m sorry, I don’t recall. Yes?

[Audience member] Where does Anglican come from?

[Rushdoony] From the church of England, the Anglican orthodox church is a group that is broken away from the Episcopal church under Bishop Dees and holds to the 39 articles in the prayer book theology.

[Audience member] They have communion and such?

[Rushdoony] Yes, they had communion Tuesday night when Bishop Dee’s was here.

Yes?

[Audience member] I wondered, I’m lacking in knowledge. John the Baptist after he was baptizing along the Jordan, is there other references to him from that day forward? Or does {?} drop him there and we never know what happens to him?

[Rushdoony] No, he continues and at the beginning of our Lord’s ministries some of John’s disciples complained to John saying that everyone was leaving John and following Jesus. And John said “exactly, He must increase, and I must decrease.” Then subsequently we read of John sending some of His followers to Jesus to ask a question when John was in prison, imprisoned by Herod. And of course if you recall he was killed by Herod at the request of [audience interruption] yes, yes he was killed. Salome’s famous dance, and she requested of course the head of John the Baptist on a charger, and he was killed by Herod. And our Lord declared that he was the greatest of those of the old Covenant period, so that our Lord’s evaluation places him higher than Moses or David or Isaiah, or anyone else.

Yes?

[Audience member] I wondered why that is because all through the Bible there is a likening of, well there all through but there certainly was a period when Moses said to his people “God will give you someone like us to {?}” and there was a great deal of {?}.

[Rushdoony] Yes, Moses of perhaps all those in the Old Testament period, had the greatest likeness to Christ. Moses was the lawgiver, and he was the leader of the people. Christ came in fulfillment of the law and as the lawgiver now in person. But the greatness here was not in terms of importance so much, as in person. And perhaps no-one had a more difficult task then John the Baptist. He is called by the prophets the Elijah who is to come, he is compared to Elijah. And this gives us an inkling of his task, now Elijah was preaching to Israel, the Northern Kingdom, and Judah was the Southern kingdom and his message was one of doom “the end is here for you.” So his life was a very difficult one because the world he loved, the people he loved, the land he loved, he had to say it’s sentenced to death. But at least Elijah could point to the southern kingdom as a continuing one.

Now when John the Baptist came he came as the second Elijah as it were, and to make it clear to the people who he was, he dressed exactly as Elijah did. He lived off of dessert food exactly as Elijah did, and to signify that Judgment was coming upon the people, that they would be living in the wilderness off of locust and honey. In other words what they could pick up out in the wilderness, that there life was going to be like that of refugees if they lived. And his opening words were that the ax is laid to the root of the tree. In other words it’s going to be cut down, the nation, your life, your hope, your future. So John the Baptist had a fearfully difficult ministry, it was one of judgment, and while of course he was pointing to the coming of Christ and declared “make straight in the dessert or in the wilderness a highway for our God” He also knew that most were not going to follow Christ, that judgment was upon them. It takes a strong man, a very, very great man to proclaim unrelieved judgment and we know how difficult it was for Elijah, and how intensely lonely and desperate he felt about this.

Jeremiah who came closest to the same kind of situation has been called the weeping prophet because of the intensity of his grief as he had to proclaim his judgment. But John the Baptist did it resolutely, and we do not see any real hint of weakness in him. And our Lord spoke of that, He said “What did you go out into the wilderness to see, a reed shaken in the wind?” Something weak? Something that could be blown over? No. When you went out to hear John the Baptist you heard the power of God. So the proximity of John to Jesus leads us very often to overlook the tremendous power and strength of the man that he could take what he did, and proclaim what he did, without a hint of a murmur, or a complaint, or a sign of weakness. He was a very great man spiritually.

To find someone of like character I can only think of one other man of similar iron will and strength. John Knox.

[Audience member] Why do you suppose John in prison didn’t recognize, or didn’t recognize definitely Jesus was the Christ?

[Rushdoony] He had proclaimed Jesus as the Christ, and His question rather showed bewilderment at the delay in openly proclaiming himself. And our Lord does not see it as any weakness or a failure in John because he answers without a hint of rebuke.

[Audience member] I don’t know if I can ask my question properly, there seems to be a contradiction of the Bible quotes Jesus as saying “ask and it shall be given, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened up to you”. Which would makes you over use it, everything is granted that you seek and really properly. Yet so many of the really great characters who in the Bible did follow God’s word have become martyrs, and then you said something today about, do you always have to be a martyr?

[Rushdoony] No.

[Audience member] Do Christians?

[Rushdoony] No, and of course many of the men in the Bible too are blessed tremendously. Materially and spiritually, certainly Abraham was, and Isaac, and Jacob. Even though he was not entirely, in having four women on his neck that I think took away from his other blessings, but all the same he had tremendous material and spiritual blessings and very many others. David, Solomon, many of them.

[Same audience member] I’m thinking of Steven for instance, who was really filled with the Holy Ghost.

[Rushdoony] Yes, well first of all the statement of our Lord “Ask and it shall be given, knock and it shall be opened” do not place total power in our hands to get what we want. We are the children of our Father in heaven, and like children we must ask, and it shall be given. But even as a parent wants to give to his children what the child needs and what the child delights in, it is always conditional upon the superior wisdom of God. Second history is a battle, and those who are on the forefront of the battle, as many of the prophets were at particular times in history, certainly bear the brunt of it. In particular in those ages when the battle is extremely severe and certainly in Elijah’s time it was. But Nehemiah in spite of the problems saw tremendous rebuilding, and so did Ezra, and so did Zachariah, and Haggai, and Malachi, and others. So, much depends on the period and what was occurring, but there is a progressive fulfillment so that the later we are in history the fullness of triumph.

But in those days the battle was joined with intensity, and never more intensely than in the apostolic and post-apostolic era. Because then the fullness of the gospel was confronting a world that was deep in its depravity, dedicated to the proposition was political. So here was a challenge, and it was all-out warfare, and so you had an intensely bloody battle, and warfare.

[Audience member] Don’t we face the same thing?

[Rushdoony] Yes, except now it is the forces of darkness who are trying to overthrow something that has spread throughout the world. And even though they be, to a great extent, gaining power in the political sphere, the very fact that we call them subversive is indicative of the fact that now they have to work underground and by subterfuge, and by confusing the issues. In other words evil cannot be as openly evil as it was then. So in a sense the battle to a great extent has gone against them, even though they have great powers at the moment

Yes?

[Audience member] I was wondering if you would give us an idea of how ministries have increased. For instance I think we can all understand, I’ve always thought that if the ministers didn’t want us to do things, who would? Pronounce judgment and that sort of thing, and I would imagine that from what I’ve read the later part of the last century {?} But is it their responsibility of ministers to speak to the times in which their living?

[Rushdoony] Yes, and this the clergy has not done and of the clergy today it can be said as Isaiah said to the clergy in his day “My shepherds are all of them dumb dogs that cannot bark” [laughter]. In other words their purpose is to warn the flock of the wolves that are approaching, and they can’t even bark. So Isaiah’s judgment was very valid, and then there’s another sentence in Isaiah about the false clergy, it’s a rather blunt and almost vulgar one he says “That the mountain labored and labored and brought forth wind”. It couldn’t produce anything but a lot of hot air. And this unfortunately is true, the clergy has not done its duty. And the clergy has as the academy or school, or university, gone downhill intellectually. I was interested a few years ago when I was working on the Messianic character of American Education to read the book on the modern university by Harley Auspergers {?} an existentialist philosopher, and Theospers is a professor of philosophy, one of the most distinguished in the world today, but Theospers says very frankly that there are very few superior men in the modern university. And he says they are not wanted, it is…

[Audience member] Where are they?

[Rushdoony] Or they’re out in the world because they cannot get into a university, and he said it’s very obvious because if you were to get a superior man in a university it would immediately show up the university as a whole. So he said what do they do? They work to ensure mediocrity. But they don’t want something so inferior that the children who come there will recognize it as so obviously and totally stupid. So while they’re hostile to something that is blatantly, totally stupid they want mediocrity, and superiority is hated.

Now this in essence has become the clergy as well. First of all the clergy today has a minimal knowledge of the Bible, and this is a sorry fact. Second they have become primarily administrators and promoters, they’re good with building projects, they’re good with organizing parish activities, doing everything but the spiritual task which is theirs. They do not know what is going on in the world, and I think it is a rare congregation where the people in the pew don’t know more than the man in the pulpit, and this is true in almost any kind of church you take so that it makes it painful to go and sit and listen. Now when you have this in the university and you have it in the church both, the two places where people should be learning, you can realize why we are moving rapidly towards judgment.

Yes?

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] Say that again.

[Audience member] {?} Would you not be committed to preaching, depending on how far this country is gone. A hundred years ago there was time to save us, right? So you would be preaching according to that period, is that right? And I was just wondering what’s the difference, there’s only so many numbers of…I mean then there’s going to be the period when after the country falls, and there is another stripe of minister to rebuild. Is that right?

[Rushdoony] Yes. It is interesting that in the colonial and early constitutional period one of the things that was a routine requirement of the clergy was the election sermon before every election you had election Sunday in which the clergy went over the basic issues of the day, morally and spiritually, and preached to them.

[Audience member] And that’s not politics?

[Rushdoony] No they weren’t telling people how to vote, they were giving them a fundamental perspective on the basic issues of the time; or dealing with a particular problem so that the people would face the election with a moral and spiritual perspective.

Now this was a tremendous thing, and of course one of the things most hated by the French Revolutionary forces and the Luminous forces when they came into this country was the election sermon. And they ranted and raved against it, and said the clergy are trying to influence the election and so on. Well I’ve never read an election sermon which told you anything about who to vote for, or what party to vote for. But it told you a great deal about the perspective to have towards the country, towards life, towards fundamental issues that confront the country. And by darkening the spiritual perception of the people they of course made it very easy to subvert them. There is very little real preaching today, it is elementary stuff that belongs on the pre-catechetical level. That if you had real preaches the churches in most cases would be empty, because they wouldn’t listen.

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] No, they would not be heard. They would throw them out if they were moved back two hundred years, yes. They could not be ordained most of them.

Yes?

[Audience member] {?} (Something about cats and hormones)

[Rushdoony] Well I think they will say all kinds of things to sell things nowadays and I’m sure…

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] No there are varieties like that, you don’t see them in this part of the country but they can be shipped in.

[Audience Member] {?} A Christmas tree is actually some sort of a pagan symbol, something about nature and then I’m reading {?} it is actually the tree of life, is there just different stories?

[Rushdoony] Yes, you had what is given in the Church of the Holy Spirit bulletin is true, but what you have had is this; the modern Christmas tree came in again in the last century as a result of a kind of semi-pagan impetuous reviling the old North European Yule, or the winter solstice, the Yule log that was brought in, the pig with the apple in its mouth , and the celebration that was totally pagan. So the Christmas tree in its modern form has been a product of this semi-pagan movement, however the statement made there is historically true. Now you can take it in that sense if you wish, and that’s alright.

Yes?

[Audience member] Getting back to the lack of the clergy stability and desire to take on issues today. Isn’t it because they misconstrue the division of church and state, and also of course they’ve had misconstruction of the actual relationship of the two repeated over and over to them?

[Rushdoony] Yes, but this idea of course is to a great extent a product of the French Revolution and revolutionary movements. You have this carried to the extreme in the seventh day Adventist church. But while the Bible calls for a separation of the institutions, and of the offices it does state that both are together to be under God, so the state has a duty and an obligation to be Christian. The church has an obligation to be Christian.

Now, the fact that they are two separate institutions does not mean that they are not coordinate. A man and wife are two separate individuals, but if they’re not coordinate you have an explosion. If church and state are not coordinate you have a destructive situation. So this idea that you have to separate the two and root out everything that is Christian from the state is a revolutionary idea, and it is impossibility. Every state presupposes a religious foundation, because a law is enacted reality with a religious foundation. Every system of laws, every body of laws, represents a religious faith. Now the question is simply this, not “Will the state have a religion or not?” but “What religion will the state have?” Because the state is going to have a system of laws, the system of laws in the Soviet Union is humanistic, and humanism is a religion. What we are doing in this country is uprooting Christian law because we are disestablishing Christianity, we are separating Christianity from the state, and we are enacting humanistic laws.

And of course the UN represents the same thing. The fact that the UN took sanctions against Rhodesia this last week is very interesting. What crime did Rhodesia commit? But have we taken sanctions against Cuba? Or against the Soviet Union for taking over Estonia, Lafia, and Lithuania? Have we taken sanctions against any radical government? Not at all, because there politics are humanistic; Rhodesia is still considerably Christian in its perspective, and this is intolerable.

Yes?

[Audience member] Did you hear about the fuss in San Francisco about the nativity scene?

[Rushdoony] No.

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes well you can now also hear in schools and sometimes on the radio Silent Night without any reference to Christ. It speaks about the birth of love, rather than of Christ.

Yes?

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] It will disappear steadily.

[Audience member] {?} Be everything to everybody.

[Rushdoony] Exactly, masters of ambivalence.

I want to read one little thing more before we adjourn, and this is from the December 14 review of the news, which is the weekly news magazine from Belmont, an exceptionally good publication. And this is a very interesting item, I quote:

“The general board of the national council of churches recognizes the Roman Catholic church as being in agreement with the preamble of the constitution of the National Council of Churches makes it eligible for a policy making role in the NCC. For the past two years the Roman Catholic Church has held observer status with the NCC. Now it will be allowed to have representatives on policy making boards and committees, and to provide full time staff personal in those areas where it chooses to become involved. There are approximately 15 non-member churches eligible to participate in aspects of the councils program.”

Now the significance of this is very obvious. Without formal membership in Missouri Synod Lutheran church, the Southern Baptist, the Roman Catholic Church, and other groups where the members still feel hostile in the national council, are being taken in, are having a status. In fact officers on the various boards where policy is determined, and will to all practical intent, be members of the council and also in the world council of churches. This is the first step towards the one world religion. Meanwhile, interfaith festivals such as the San Francisco festival of faith will become more and more common the world over, and then these groups will be brought in. Thus we see something of what is coming in the future, and it is headed for a dead end because God is still God.

Well with that we stand dismissed.