Foundations of Social Order

The Procession of the Holy Ghost

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Foundations of Social Order

Lesson: 10-19

Genre: Lecture

Track:

Dictation Name: RR126E10

Location/Venue:

Year:

Our heavenly father, we give thanks unto thee that this world is under thy government. That thou hast established thy kingdom in our midst and in our hearts, that thou hast spoken through thy word concerning the things that are to come, and hath given us thy sure and certain promise that the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ. Bless us by thy Word and by thy spirit that we may move in terms of thy victory and the blessed assurance of thy Word, in Jesus’ name, amen. Our text today is from the gospel according to Saint Luke, the 19th chapter verses 28 following (Luke 19:28-end chapter) and our subject the procession of the Holy Ghost. The procession of the Holy Ghost. Luke nineteen, verses twenty eight through forty eight. And when he had thus spoken he went before, ascending up to Jerusalem. And it came to pass when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany at the mount called the Mount of Olives he sent two of his disciples, saying go ye into the village over against you; in which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him and bring him hither. And if any man ask you why do you loose him? Thus shall ye say unto him, because the Lord hath need of him. And they that were sent went their way and found even as he had said unto them. And as they were loosing the colt the owners thereof said unto them: why loose ye the colt? And they said the Lord hath need of him. And they brought him to Jesus: and they cast their garments upon the colt and they sat Jesus thereon, and as they went they spread their clothes in the way. And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty work that they had seen; saying Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell that if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. And when he was come near he beheld the city and wept over it, saying if thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace, but now are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass the round and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground and thy children within thee and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. And he went into the temple and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; saying unto them it is written, my house is the house of prayer but ye have made it a den of thieves. And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him, and could not find what they might do: for all the people were very attentive to hear him.

Today is Palm Sunday, the day of the celebration of the triumphant entry of our Lord into Jerusalem. Our subject today is the procession of the Holy Ghost, an article of the Nicene Creed. What is the connection between the two subjects? The connection is a very necessary one and we cannot understand the doctrine involved in the triumphant entry and Palm Sunday unless we understand the doctrine of the procession of the Holy Ghost. The doctrine of our Lords entry can be (?) and is extensively in our day and age (?). it is treated as a memorable historical event which we are to commemorate, certainly it is a memorable historic occasion. But Cesar crossed the Rubicon and ultimately entered Rome, and what is that to us? Apart from being an important historical event it means nothing to us individually personally spiritually, it has nothing to do with your salvation and mine. And the triumphant entry into Jerusalem can be reduced to the same situation and the historical event of note happening to a man who was very important in history and no more. The significance of the triumphal entry hinges on the doctrine of the procession of the Holy Ghost. First of all let us examine the meaning of the triumphal entry. It is the triumphal entry even though our Lord went there to be crucified, even though Jerusalem rejected Him, because he was not the victim but the victor. Moreover, as he entered Jerusalem he proclaimed himself to be king, the messianic king of the old testament prophecies, king over Israel and king over all the nations and the universe, and the ground recognized that which he declared, and proclaimed him to be king declaring: Blessed be the king that cometh in the name on the lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest he is there for plainly openly proclaimed as king of kings and lord of lords in terms of the prophecy. But this was not all. Our Lord not only declared himself to be king by the way he entered in fulfillment of the prophecy of Zechariah, he also declared himself to be God, very God of very God. He entered into the temple and we are told that he cleansed it declaring: my house shall be a house of prayer for all nations, but ye have made it a den of thieves; My house.

He called the house of God my house openly identifying himself as God. Is it any wonder that in the charges against him the Pharisees declared that he made himself to be God? He therefor proclaimed himself as he entered Jerusalem to be very God of very God and king not only over Israel and the world but over the universe. He also pronounced sentence upon Jerusalem and Judea, so then he declared that if he were not accepted as savior, he therefor was their judge. That all men and nations to the end of time without exception, either accepted him as their lord and savior, their king and God, or they faced him as their judge who sentenced them to damnation. Now this doctrine was offensive to the ancient world. Antiquity was humanistic, every man had his own way of getting to god and to them acceptable religion, reasonable religion was religion that said you go your way and I’ll go mine and we’ll all get there in the end. And here was Jesus Christ and the religion of scripture the preaching of the gospel, openly plainly declaring there is none other name under heaven by which men may be saved than Jesus Christ. And so the humanists began to work to subvert this, to wipe out the exclusiveness, the offense of Christianity, the offense of the courts, and to make this a religion which left room for everyone and was basically humanistic. Now we have seen how the Arians very early began to subvert the faith by reducing Jesus Christ to a kind of super human man, a superman, but one like unto us and we are all potentially like him, but definitely not God, and declaring that God, God the father, was really not very different from what we call nature, he was not a person he was a silent God incapable of expressing himself or speaking because he was just a force of nature.

Now Arianism pretended to be Christianity and as it poached the doctrine of the trinity it subordinated the son and the Holy Ghost to the father, made the father one with nature and wherever it talked about the Holy Ghost the Holy Ghost was simply the act of nature, the force of nature in motion, and the Son was in effect the superman that nature had produced. Arianism subordinationism, the humanism of the day thus declared that God the father was the only true God and he was in effect no different than nature. That was Unitarianism, it was humanism. As a result it treated the revealed order, the revelation of God, the Word and his enscriptured word the bible as either meaningless or having a lesser status and just being at best a kind of addition to the revelation which nature is. This was their perspective. As a result since nature was the real order and nature was God, that which nature produced, the state was man’s saving order. And so statism was being reestablished very steadily in and through Arianism. And one of the things the Arians definitely worked against was the verse in the gospel of John 14th chapter sixteen through eighteen verses twenty six and twenty seven which speak of the procession of the Holy Ghost from the father and the Son, Jesus Christ declaring that he will send unto them a comforter, the Holy spirit declaring that he comes from the Father and he comes also from Him the son, so that in these verses the procession of the Holy Ghost from both the father and the son is definitely affirmed. What did this doctrine mean? This doctrine meant that Jesus Christ is very God of very God, and that neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit can be made into aspects of nature, that the Jesus Christ is the revelation of the triune God who is above and over nature, the creator of all things visible and invisible, and therefor wholly and totally supernatural, above and beyond and over nature, and that Jesus Christ is very God of very God, equally God with the father and the spirit, is man’s only savior and man’s ultimate judge.

The doctrine of the procession of the Holy Ghost therefor preserved the significance of the triumphal entry of Christ’s procession into Jerusalem and is declaration that He was God and king, Lord and savior, judge over the nations. The Arians depreciated Christ because they depreciated revelation, they wanted the natural order as the true order, the decisive order and the state as man’s savior. For the Arians, God at best was simply the first cause, but basically nature. And for them the determination of history was transferred from God to man so that man was his own savior and man in the state the real God of the universe. The Arians therefor went to work on both the doctrine of Christ and the doctrine of the Holy Ghost. The Augustinians recognized what was being done, and so in the councils of Toledo first at the second council of Toledo at 447, they adopted the Canon the father is begotten, the son is begotten, the (?) not begotten but proceeding from the father and the Son. And at the next council of Toledo in 589 they added that clause which is now a part of the Nicene Creed concerning the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life, who proceedeth from the father and the son. This was added at the council of Toledo in 589 when the Orthodox believers gained the victory over the Arians and this clause was added to seal the victory over the Arians, over the humanists who until then had governed in both church and state in all Spain.

Though a century ago in 1875 at a council of various churches including the old Catholic Church in Germany, and the Orthodox churches as well, this doctrine (?) and a prominent Anglican theologian of the day declared the Doctrine of the procession of the Holy Ghost is a theological relic, it will no longer divide the east and the west. The east did not accept this doctrine, as it was pronounced in Toledo. And east very quickly declined theologically, and the eat saw the rise of statism so that Arians were eastern Orthodoxy, the Greek orthodox church and the Russian orthodox church prevailed, saw the rise of statism and the decline of the church; and if you examine the doctrine of Christ for example in Russian orthodox literature, you find that they have the doctrines of Tenosis (?) in which Christ is seen as emptied of all his powers, of all his deity and he’s a meek humble person who is totally submissive, who sits under the power of the state and the church must do likewise, and he is neither the savior nor the judge, but just a harmless charitable good fellow who goes about sympathizing with the poor and the downtrodden. But now we are told this doctrine no longer divides us, and what has happened since 1875 when this doctrine was slighted, we have seen God again become identified with nature and evolution widely accepted in virtually every church in the east and the west, we have seen the significance of palm Sunday slighted and Christ as lord and savior, God king and judge slighted and forgotten.

And instead social action stressed, and the state as man’s savior presented to the church. The church as a result has turned steadily towards Unitarianism, God as nature the state as the true and the saving order, evolution instead of creationism, and the deity of Christ progressively denied. Palm Sunday means the triumph of Christ to the end of time, and for all eternity. It means that He is present today because the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life proceedeth from the father and the son. The procession of the Holy Ghost is a reality, He is the comforter, whom Christ sends to His church to strengthen defend and witness to it and through it, and He is present now in the Holy Spirit in the hearts of all believers, to strengthen them and to comfort them, He is present to unbelievers to condemn them and to give them in all things a troubled conscience, and in the end to sentence them to everlasting damnation. Palm Sunday is not to be compared with Caesars crossing of the Rubicon, or events in history. But the one is an even also in the soul of every man, and the procession of the Holy Ghost makes Palm Sunday an inescapable reality, that every man to the end of time Christ declares himself, am men either receive Him as their savior or face Him as their judge. Let us pray. Almighty God our heavenly father we thank thee for Jesus Christ triumphal entry not only into Jerusalem but by thy grace into our hearts. We thank thee that He has come, that he has established His dominion in us, and that we are now thy people, separated unto thee, and that all thy promises unto us in Jesus Christ are yea and amen. We pray our father that this day and always we may move in the certainty of this triumphal procession, knowing that it is thy purpose oh Lord that all things be put under His feet, that the kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and that of the increase of His government there shall be no end. Make us bold in this faith our father and confident therein, and therefor faithful in thy service, in Jesus name, amen.

Are there any questions now? Yes.

(Audience unintelligible)

(Rushdoony) The councils that are getting together are very very different in fact the exact opposite of these early councils we have been considering. These early councils met not to unify the church but in a sense to divide it in terms of the truth. Their purpose therefor was not unity but the truth, and they never came together without saying to a certain segment of the church: because you have departed from the faith you have departed from us and we no longer have any portion with you. The councils together come together er, the councils today come together to subvert the faith, they are interested in one thing: unity at the price of truth, creating a humanistic structure, so that they are seeking to conform the church not to Christ, but to man. Now in the early councils there was a totally different perspective you see from the present councils, so the present councils are working in effect to do that which the early councils sought to prevent, the triumph of humanism over Christianity. Yes.

(Audience unintelligible)

(Rushdoony) Yes, in the early councils there were three patriarchates that were regarded as equal in significance and in rank, and were so treated and the council declared them to be of equal status. There were the patriarchate of Alexandria, Constantinople, and as the term was then used, Old Rome, so that these three were of equal rank, and there was no question as to the preeminence of any one of them. The equality of the bishops was accepted so that while these three had a primacy, it was a primacy not in terms of authority but in terms of eminence, of honor, and the councils specifically stated in some of their canons repeatedly this fact. Now it was not until after the year 1000 that Hildebrand, when he became pope, proclaimed the supremacy of the bishop of Rome, but prior to that time some of the popes actually declared that such a doctrine was anathema to that. There was a hint of this in Galatius in his teaching, but it never came to the front until Hildebrand. Now in the early councils the basic theological leadership was in Alexandria, so we have to say that Alexandria showed the primacy theologically to Chalcedon.

At Chalcedon, the theological Primacy went to Rome, there the tome of Leo, Saint Leo was decisive. Then as er, after that of course, you find the Eastern Church and the North African church going downhill very rapidly as heresy began to infect it, and the theological leadership passed for a time into the hands of the Augustinians. Now Saint Augustine was of course bishop of Hippo in North Africa, but the area of Augustinian influence especially Southern Gaul and later on Spain. So we find the Athanasian creed coming out of the Augustinians, basically of Southern Gaul, we find also that the doctrine of grace as it is enunciated in the Council of Orange whatever its effects, nevertheless Augustinian, again Southern Gaul and we find Spain in the councils of Toledo showing theological leadership. After that, the basic center of the church moved for a couple centuries, can anyone guess where? Ireland. Ireland. The church of Ireland which was an independent church exercised tremendous power and did the basic evangelism in much of France, the northern and central sections and in Germany and elsewhere, and its closest relations were with the Syrian church, and in many of the graveyards of the Irish monks, some of the gravestones are in Syria, but the Irish church was a tremendously important church and Ireland was the center at the time of world culture. Now the Irish culture and it had never regained its eminence, or comparable culture or a comparable prosperity. The Irish culture was destroyed by the politicians of Ireland, they were always conflicting one with the one, and there was never anything but turmoil between them, and so they invited the various quarrelling Irish factions, the Danes and other of the Scandinavian warriors who were at that time as you know rather wild people in as their allies. Well these various Scandinavians came in and decided it was a good place and why leave? So they began to establish their domain there and loot and kill, and so Ireland very quickly was destroyed.

Now subsequently the church of Ireland was united and it was the church of Ireland by the way that carried the gospel into Scotland and into much of England although it had come into England first during the time of the Roman Empire and Roman possession there, and then it gradually gone under as the Romans withdrew. But when the churches of England and Ireland were united with Rome, a sizeable portion remained there independent so that into the high middle and almost late middle ages you had two arch Bishops in Ireland, the Arch bishop in Dublin appointed from Rome and then the Arch Bishop of- oh does anyone remember the name of the ancient Irish center? At any rate there were two seas.. What? No that’s from England. It’s one of the..

(Audience unintelligible)

(Rushdoony) Yes I know the one you mean but that but that isn’t the place, that was one of the important centers of the bishops of Ireland, at any rate it’s one of the most hallowed names in Irish history, and there was also a great center of the Irish church, the continuing Irish church in Wales.

Yes.

(Audience unintelligible)

(Rushdoony) Yes, it became such a tremendous center of monastic learning and the number of saints in that century is staggering, people of tremendous scholarship and culture. The illuminated manuscripts, the greatest of the illuminated manuscripts are from Ireland and Armenia and a few years ago some of the Irish manuscripts were put under a magnifying glass and the number of brush strokes in a square inch were close to a thousand. Now how they could take the painstaking time and the sharpness of their eyes that they could have copied these bibles with such loving care and such beauty is almost beyond belief.

(Audience) I was just wondering, of all these great people have there (unintelligible) have they been (unintelligible)

(Rushdoony) Yes, we have some manuscripts but basically no, they have been scattered or destroyed.

(Audience) (Unintelligible)

(Rushdoony) Very little, very very little. Yes. Yes.

(Audience unintelligible)

(Rushdoony) The work of Isabella has been extensively bypassed, her work in Spain was very very important both politically and religiously. Why, I don’t know, in the last century there was a great deal of interest in her in this country, interestingly enough. But since then Isabella has been very very badly neglected. Her work was important. In the remaining time I would like to call attention to some things from the newspaper in the past week, not very pleasant but I think something we need to recognize as the ugly reality that is taking over in the church. From the Wall Street Journal for Monday March the 13th on the front page a long story tenderloin ministry, a secularized church pursues its mission in unorthodox causes. San Francisco homosexuals helped by Blythe Methodist.

Some members unhappy. And it goes on to speak about Blythe Methodist church, one of the wealthiest churches and the most powerful in California, and I am quoting “Blythes ministers are especially concerned about homosexuality, it is widespread in San Francisco, police estimate that eighty to ninety thousand San Franciscans, or more than ten percent of the city’s 790,000 people are homosexuals. Blythe permitted the vanguard, a group of young male prostitutes to have a dance in the church. Blythe also has made office space available to the Vanguards, helped them secure a clubroom and bought them furniture.” And so on. “Blythe ministers haven’t tried to reform the homosexuals” and so on. And it describes some of their activities that they sponsor, and they have also established an agency called citizens alert, a group that maintains a twenty four hour answering service to help people arrested by police, and of course their cry perpetually is police brutality and discrimination against homosexuals and so on. And it goes on along this line, however this article is not an unfriendly one and the concluding paragraph reads: “Blythes activities have intrigued many clergymen and religious laymen around the country.” Two writers from a methodist magazine recently spent some time at Blythe doing a series of articles; we have seen the growing edge of Christianity they jubilantly reported back to their editor. Now to get a more candid account of Blythe church this from a far far leftist periodical, the Birthday Barb, for Friday march the third on a recent doing at Blythe church, and the title is: hippy happy hour makes Blythe glow. The Blythe memorial church is like most churches, quiet, respectable, fastidiously needed, (?) for its Sunday morning congregation and the inspiration of subdued words and music, but not always. Last Friday night in the black stately stone building at the edge of San Francisco’s perimeter line streamed a (?) a beat that tuned in and then dropped out. The sermon was this is it dig it now, and the mass was black. Before the (?) closed, the church fathers had lost their cool and ordered the orgiastic revelers from what they had felt would be a haven of hedonism sponsored by the artist liberation front the happening had dubbed the invisible circus.

But fully visible for the peripatetic voyeur were such sights as a naked man moving easily around the main sanctuary, a score of belly dancers, some topless, passion requited within the recesses of a small chapel and for the straight, classic stag movies. The church leaders had felt it would be a good way to bring together all sectors of the community from hip to square, to help lay the groundwork for the mutual understanding needed as the different tasks became more polarized. It was, but what happened to their church? Now you see this is from the left, this paper, so it’s criticizing. The scene got underway at 8pm with a rock band in the downstairs fellowship room, about fifty people of the live audience danced to big notes. In a small room next door some people got ready for bed and (?) the thick carpet of shredded plastic. The church elevator was filled with plastic too, it was quickly commandeered by elated (?), they ascended and descended and stopped between floors with satanic (?) singing yellow submarine. Upstairs in the main sanctuary of the church some of the older hate Ashbury folk led in the chanting of Hindu mantras. In another room there was a discussion on obscenity in the arts, reverend Stewart abide and a police representative were on the panel. A chair was kept open for anyone who wanted to give an opinion, one man said that if there were really such a thing as obscenity then the Vietnam War was the most obscene thing of all. By 10pm the sanctuary of the church had been transformed into a panorama of waving candles, gliding costumes, bodies, birds of paradise, flowers, clouds of incense wavered from hundreds of glowing sticks, notes of flutes rams and seaweed horns drums blended with the churches organ and piano, projectors flashed swirling colors on the walls behind the altar the long graceful cross was bathed in dancing purples and reds as the gigantic face of Christ flashed on and off. A procession started around the banks of pews, each participant holding a candle and moving slowly in undulating line. Soon there were two lines moving in opposite directions, processioners exchanged candles as they passed, their faces glowing in the warm intimate light.

The format in the fellowship room had changed by now to a variety and talent show, admission to the room was by a booth where Glenore Candle (?) was reading fortunes by examining the lines on the bottom of peoples feet. In another downstairs room the communication company mimeographed bulletins about the happening as it evolved, posting copies outside the door. One of them declared there will be a funeral for the carcasses of the fires in the hallways, attendance is mandatory if you wish, come now. Destroy the adverse influence of the amateur show; love them with dead flowers or anything else that you love with. Photos, line arts, rallying cries and turn on admonitions were also mimeographed and handed to the crowd by little girls with sad Walter Keen eyes. At 11pm the figures said several hundred people. The large crowd began its way slowly through the halls and in and out of the small rooms, most were young people, there were a few drag queens and hells angels and probably some (?) and other (?). But everyone seemed to belong there, there was a feeling of inclusiveness that embraced all styles. In the fellowship room a film on space satellites and missiles was projected on a paper screen. The accompanying rock music got louder and stronger, then twenty belly dancers burst through the screen and started undulating, drawing spectators onto the floor to participate, some of them went topless as the dance progressed. Others- other couples joined the dance and there was a gentle touching among them as if they were cherishing the mutual intimacy of the dancing and the closeness. In the sanctuary several poets read from their works, among them Leonard Campbell and Michael McClure. Leonard Campbell got in trouble because of pornography recently. Then the scene took over again then the characteristic scent of pot seduced the incense haste(?). Several African drunks started their pulsing beat in one corner, soon many were dancing to the insistent throb, some of the belly dancers among them. Around the altar loud voices projected selections from holy books, couples kissed and caressed under the cross of Jesus. A completely naked man moved around the large room, he belonged like everyone else. In a room downstairs a sex film was shown and the grooviness of the total happening it was sexual not pornographic. On the improvised beds in the other rooms, couples were seen sleeping, talking, loving freely. Still other rooms had discussions, recording sessions, improvised folk and rock music. By 4am the crowd had thinned out somewhat. Earlier during the night some of the Blythe officials threatened to stop the event if the church weren’t cleaned up. It was an accumulation of flyers, incense, big cigarette butts, candlewax, coke cans and other debris all over the sanctuary. In answer to an appeal from the office the (?) did a thorough job of cleaning away the debris. The church leader did call a halt to the proceedings at dawn Saturday, well before the happening had been scheduled to end, on Sunday morning originally. Nobody was sure why, fire regulations and candle damage to the carpets on conjecture, they lost their cool said others.

The scene then shifted to ocean beach; there warm wind spirits were cooled by the wind a few hundred people gathered meanly around one roaring fire, three negroes played on one bongo drum and two overturned rusted barrels, the crowd stood staff(?) and shivered and tried to keep warm. At several smaller fires people were collecting sticks to maintain the blaze, silence reigned except for the occasional nostalgic comment on the wild time at Blythe. The crowd was quiet and vibrations were mixed, some people had hitchhiked from Blythe downtown, a stiff proposition at night. A few stood barefoot in the wet sand facing the ocean and let the cold water wash their feet. Now I am told that when officials of Blythe were asked about it and why they had stopped it finally, their only excuse was that well more people came than they accepted, not that they were hostile to what happened. Now I read this in detail because this of course while it is happening very openly at Blythe is happening in churches in every city across country, and this is a reality. The church today is taken over by humanism by and large and this is the end result of humanism, there can be no law over man because man is his own law, and therefor there must be the deliberate profanation of anything that represents the old faith, biblical Christianity. Yes.

(Audience unintelligible)

(Rushdoony) Yes, increasingly the kind of thing that is being sponsored. Now it does occur in many many communities and churches not far from us but it is much more discreetly handled, in other words it is not so openly done. Blythe memorial church is taking the lead like a few other churches because Blythe memorial has tremendous endowed funds, it was thirty years ago one of the most alter conservative churches in the west, but it was infiltrated and taken over, the endowed funds now enabled them to thumb their nose at any of the members who don’t like it. The sad part is that there are lots of members still sticking around.

Yes.

(Audience unintelligible)

(Rushdoony) Yes and no, first foundations when they were originally established, which goes back into the medieval period had one purpose and originally in this country until the beginning of the century had one purpose; they were to be Christian through and through, they were to further Christian work, missionary work. The idea of foundations that we have today is totally alien to the history of foundations, and it is the subversion of the whole idea of establishing a tax exempt foundation, so that originally they were to do works of charity and missionary work or Christian education, nothing else. Now I agree with you that I do not believe basically in endowed funds, especially in this day and age because the weakness of endowment is simply this: the minute you create any type of endowment, a subversion takes place, and it is commonplace for people to work their way, keep their silence for a generation in order to lay the groundwork for the takeover of a foundation, so that I believe that any kind of Christian school or college or youth center or foundation that is now established should have as its principle that it is not going to accumulate funds, the money it gets I to be used now for the present cause. If tomorrow money is needed let those who are on the scene tomorrow raise the funds for tomorrows work because if you accumulate it you will be taken over.

(Audience unintelligible)

(Rushdoony) Well as the foundations are today they should not be tax exempt. But basically in its origins the tax exemption of the foundation was the same as that of the church. They did not authorize a business, it was maintaining a Christian work, and we do not believe that the church should be taxed because the church is not the domain of the state it is the domain of Christ, it is a separate kingdom, and therefor cannot be taxed because if you subject the church to taxation you are subjecting it to total destruction, and this is why men like Lake and others are calling for the taxation of the church today, they want it to be confiscated ultimately, this is the only purpose of taxing the churches.

(Audience unintelligible)

(Rushdoony) Yes, well of course basically nothing should be called a church that is not Christian, because there is no such thing as a church really outside of Christianity. Now what do you have in other religions? You have a temple, and what is the temple for? Well a temple is a place where you buy insurance, and that’s what it is really. In the ancient pagan Roman temples or in a Buddhist temple or any such thing, what you do is to go in when you are going to go on a trip or your family is facing some problem, someone undergoing some surgery, what you do you pay a certain amount for protection from the spirits or powers that rule the universe whoever they are. If you don’t get the protection you go to somewhere else with your business, and its operated as a kind of insurance agency, now that’s what the temple was in antiquity, and that’s what it is and that’s what religion is elsewhere it is not a place of worship, it’s a place where you buy insurance, so outside of the biblical tradition there is no such thing as a house of worship. The idea is alien to all other religions, so a church should be Christian by definition and nothing else.

(Audience) What about Judaism?

(Rushdoony) Judaism with its synagogue is related to the idea of the church and we do get the church out of the synagogue. It is descended from the synagogue rather than the temple, the temple was done away with permanently. Now there can only be one legal basis for a state, you either have a humanistic foundation or you have a Judaistic foundation or a Christian foundation or a Confucian foundation. Every system of law is enacted morality, and every enacted morality represents a moral code which represents a theology, a religion. You can’t have more than one religious foundation to a state, if you allow more than one you are saying we are allowing subverses, it’s the same principle as allowing communism full legal rights in a republic, so this is why basically a state cannot have either political or religious subversion.

(Audience unintelligible)

(Rushdoony) Yes. Well the first six councils were the only ones universally acknowledged by every branch of Christendom, the seventh ecumenical council is acknowledged by the eastern churches and the Roman Catholic Church, but not by the protestant churches, but the first six are the ones universally acknowledged. We have gone through the first five and we shall in a few weeks take the sixth and we shall consider some of the other creedal developments as well

(Audience unintelligible)

(Rushdoony) No. no, we have the basic definition of the faith now in fact the first four councils really defined it, the fifth and sixth then proceeded to apply this against various heresies, we have the faith very carefully defined now it’s a question of applying it and enforcing it against heresies. Well our time is up and we stand dismissed, I’d like to just say those of you who are not getting the newsletter and would like to receive it, please leave your name and address with either Mr. or Mrs. Flannigan.