Studies in Eschatology – Zechariah

The Cup of Trembling

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Religious studies

Lesson: 13-15

Genre: Lecture

Track: 152

Dictation Name: RR127G13

Location/Venue:

Year: 1960’s-1970’s

We come to Thee mindful that our times are in Thy hands, in this confidence our Father, we wait on Thee. We thank Thee (?) Thou hast graced us. We thank Thee that we can face all our tomorrows in the confidence that Thou art there. And so our Father, arm us by Thy word and by Thy Holy Spirit, that we may be more than conquerors through Him that loved us, even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Our Scripture is the 12th chapter of Zechariah. Zechariah 12, the Cup of Trembling. Zechariah 12, the Cup of Trembling.

“12 The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.

2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.

3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

4 In that day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.

5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of hosts their God.

6 In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.

7 The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah.

8 In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them.

9 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

11 In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.

12 And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;

13 The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart;

14 All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.”

In this chapter Zechariah as he continues his messianic prophecies, speaks about Gods defense of His people. and he identifies who the people of God are. They are identified as those who look upon Him whom they have pierced. So that the first point of identification, the basic point of identification is in terms of the people of God, is in terms of Jesus Christ. So that, the people of God are the people of Christ, those who believe in Jesus Christ. They are called Judah and Jerusalem and Israel. The names of the covenant people belong to those who by faith are members of Christ, and His defense is of them: “And it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem” And that day is the day of the messiahs coming, when they look upon Him whom they have pierced.

These words of Zechariah are quoted by John in the 19th Chapter of his gospel, the 37th verse. They are echoed in Acts in Pentecost, they are again quoted in Revelation 1:7, when Jesus Christ came, and was preached by the apostles on the day of Pentecost. Those who are of the true Israel of God, those who are truly Israelites, truly Jews according to the Spirit, looked upon Him whom they have pierced, and mourned, and repenting became believers. We are their heirs spiritually. We are the true Israel of God. We are the true descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We are the true house of Judah and the house of David, because we are members of Jesus Christ, the first born of Israel, the heir of the house of Judah, the Prince of the house of David.

Thus as God speaks to Zechariah He defines the people of God, the chosen people, the true Israel, the true Judah, as those who are believers in Christ. But God also identifies Himself. In the first verse he declares himself to be the Lord, Jehovah, He who is. “I am that I am.” He who stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. Thus God declares that there are two things that characterize Him: 1, that he is the creator and sustainer of the Universe. And 2nd, the one who fashions the spirit of man within him.

Now in both instances God uses the present tense. This is important. He does not say: ‘I am the one who created the heavens and the earth,’ and ‘I am the one who formed the spirit of man within him’, as though creation was something that took place several thousand years ago and is ended. No, rather he identifies himself as the creator and sustainer; so that apart from Him as Doctor (Leopold?) has interpreted this text, if it were not for God, apart from Him, the whole frame of creation and all men would instantly dissolve into nothingness. There would be nothing, if God doth spoke the word. He spoke the word, and the heavens and the earth were created, He spoke the word and created man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into Him the breath of life.

He declares through the prophets that the nations are before Him as nothing, and at a word all things would again disappear.

Then God proceeds to declare His defense of the true church. And He describes it thus first of all. In four ways God defines how He regards and how He shall defend His true church. First, in the 7th verse: “Behold I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, and they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. “I will make,” He says, “My people, my true church, a cup of trembling, a cup of reeling, a cup of staggering.” The word can also be translated as the cup of sleep, and very definitely also as the cup (?). In other words, He says: “My true church in the eyes of the world is nothing but a small wine glass. No problem. They can drain it at a gulp, and the churches out of their way. And as they lay their plans for the future and dream of their brave new world without God, and as they dream of creating a paradise on earth apart from God, and ruling it by their total law, with their cradle to grave planning; the church to them is almost nothing (?) the true church of God. It is no more than a little wine glass that a man can toss off with a gulp, and it is no more.

But God says it shall be to them a cup of trembling. A cup of poison, so that they who take will reel and stagger and fall, destroyed by that which they sought to destroy.

The greatest horror in all of history was clearly the fall of Jerusalem. It is fitting that the city and people who crucified Christ should be subjected to what the Scripture itself declares is to be the unrivaled horror of all history. During the Jewish Roman war, 66-70 A.D. but next to that perhaps the most fearful thing was the persecution of the Christians by the Roman Empire. The sad fact is that you find scarcely mentioned this in history books now. Indeed it is now treated as though it were a myth. That no such thing happened, it was just propaganda that the Christians circulated, and indeed we are now told that it is the Christians who are the persecutors.

But it was a fearful persecution. When it began in the days of Nero it was a relatively small thing, Christians were taken and thrown to the lions, Nero dipped them in pitch and oil and used them for human torches, but this was nothing compared to what ensued as the mass persecutions began. The executioners would work from morning until night, and at the end of the day their execution axes would be frozen in their hands so that they could not unclench their fists and someone would have to unclench their fists for them. They were out to destroy the church.

And yet significantly it was in those days, in the days of the Roman Empire, that the proverb came into being: “If you are tired of living, persecute Christians.” If you are weary of life, persecute the Christians. It is the easiest way to death. And the emperors who tried it and did it ended up with their own destruction.

God has made His true church a cup of trembling, a cup of poison to the ungodly.

Then second, in verse 3, He declares “And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.”

God further declares the church will be like a stone which is in the way these world conquerors, and they say: “Well there is that stone in the road, we must remove it; it is a simple matter, anyone can pick it up and throw it off to the side.” But he said first of all it shall become a burdensome stone to anyone that lifts it, it shall give the severe Hernia. But this is not all, it shall cut them in pieces, so that this rock which they figured they could pick up and throw aside, clear the path of history, will cut them to pieces, destroy them. Because this rock is a part of that rock which is Jesus Christ, the Rock of Ages.

Then God in a third figure, in verse 4-5 declares that he will smite the enemies of His church with bewilderment and madness, so that all those who attack His church will be judiciously blinded. And the more they proceed with their hostility the blinder they will become, and bewilderment and madness will be their destiny and their destruction.

And 4th, God declares in verse 6 that those who are the leaders of the faithful, those who are the rulers, the governors of the true church: “In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.”

God declares that even as a blazing (?) when any wood is cast upon it will quickly burn up the wood, and even as fire, a torch of fire on a row of dry and fallen grain will quickly devour that grain, so will the leaders of the faithful be unto the ungodly, with their word and their testimony.

Then in verse 8 God goes on to declare how He values His people. And He declares: “In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble” Or he that is fallen, or lowly, a true believer that has very simple faith, he that is feeble “among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them.” Shall be as the angel of the Lord, as God, in other words, as Jesus Christ. Because the angel of the Lord over and over again in Scripture is one of the terms used for the Messiah, for God the Son. And so God declares this is how He values His people, His true sons. For we are members of Christ’s body. By Faith we are members of Him, so that, according to the Scriptures, when we approach God in Jesus name, God sees not us, but His son Jesus Christ because we approach in His person. He is our mediator. He is our representative, He is our person, in the presence of God, so that we are to Him as God as the Son of God, as God the Son before Him. So God speaks, and we must listen.

He declares that we shall be (?) That those who stand in terms of the word of God, who have incurred the enmity of men, because the natural man is in enmity with God Paul declares, and as the people God, who incur the hatred they have of God. Who also endure (?) their plan for history means that the road of history has to be cleared of this boulder, the church. And this cup must be disposed of. They plan to dispose of the true church of God. But God says that it is to them a cup of trembling, a cup of poison. It is to them a rock that shall destroy them. Bewilderment, madness, and blindness shall seize them, and my word as it is proclaimed shall be like fire in their midst, to devour them.

The Lord asks us to move in terms of His word. In the last word He declares: “All, power, all authority in heaven and on earth is given unto Me. Go ye therefore, in my name. Disciple and conqueror all nations. Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” Let us pray.

Almighty God our Heavenly Father we give thanks unto Thee that Thou art God, and that Thy word is true. And we thank Thee that Thou hast made us beloved unto Thee in Jesus Christ. That Thou hast given unto us certain great and sure gospels in Thy word, assuring us Oh Lord of thy love, of the certainty of our victory in Jesus Christ, and the certainty of the defeat of the enemy. Our God we thank Thee, in Jesus name, amen.

Before we have questions there are a couple of items that I would like to pass on to you, one from the October 10 US News and World Report, and the title is with a question mark: Private Pension Plans in Danger? And it speaks of the new plan which the US Treasury Department has set forth, and which may be adopted, and if it is adopted it will be retroactive to January the 1st, 1965. Now the essence of this plan is that the federal government feels that all the private pension plans that various companies have are unfair, because the president, the vice president, the better paid employees get a very good pension, and the janitor for example does not. So according to their ruling, as a first step, these pension plans should be equalized to a degree. And apparently the idea is to equalize them progressively. So that, for example, according to the Treasuries new Pension rules, if they are adopted, if a vice president is making $50,00 a year and is going to get a pension of $26,440 on retirement, then he would be cut to $19,690. In other words he would be cut by about $7,000, as a first step, and everyone under him would be cut proportionately, in order to enable them to take the poorest paid employees and raise their pensions.

Now the reaction of industry to this has been a very obvious one. For if this is the first step to equalize things, the answer is the pension plans will have to be dropped. Because what man wants to pay out a sizeable proportion of his salary every month, for a pension for someone else? He would rather take the whole thing, and take home pay, rather than to pay for the janitors pension. And so the title very appropriately is: Private Pension Plans in Danger? They are, it will destroy them if this new Treasury regulation goes through. This of course is the outcome of socialism, it is destructive of everything, and ultimately itself.

Then another item, this some of you may have seen in the paper about a week ago, a statement by Los Angeles Sheriff Peter Bishops, stating that of the almost 4,000 persons arrested during the Watts riots, 3,927 to be exact, only 7 went to prison. Only 7. And these were the ones that they had clear cut testimony against. And he said: “Today we face a withdrawal from responsibility and a lack of social conscience that is catastrophic. We wage war against crime, but are prevented from winning by privileged sanctuaries.” And so he says in effect what we have is a surrender to the opposition. And they can riot at will, and of those that are arrested on a very selected basis and as leaders with a great deal of evidence against them, of almost 4,000, only seven go to prison, and then for very small terms. Only 3 of these 7 went to state prison. In other words only 3 had terms long enough to necessitate being shipped out of the county jail.

Now this is the reality of our situation as far as law and order are concerned, you don’t have it. Its reached the point of breakdown. So that, what point is there in making arrests when you have as clear cut a situation as the Watt’s riot, (?).

The people who do not believe that our situation is critical, tell them about these facts. These facts are known by every kind of civilized worker across country, and they are taking advantage of them. Are there any questions now?

Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] We have a great deal to do about it. It is being taken from us because we are handing it over to them. Because, it is not enough to be angry about a situation, you have to have a concept of law in order to cope with something. Now there is no question that most Americans are unhappy with what is going on; but to be unhappy about something is not to have any answer to it. If you begin to declare to them the kind of law and order we need, across the boards, they are not in favor of it. First of all they don’t have law in their home, discipline to children. Now this is where concept of law begins. I have talked to men in the Sheriff departments of certain counties where you have the Easter week students migrations, and they have girls 14-15, and boys of 14-5 there by the thousands and 10’s of thousands. Drunk and promiscuous. And about all they ever here when they place a call long distance to parents to come and take the children, is abuse. “Why don’t you let the kids alone, they are just enjoying themselves.”

Try to tell some of those officers that our liberties are being taken from us without our knowing it. As far as they are concerned, they are being taken from us because we don’t want them. Liberty and license don’t go together. Liberty goes with discipline and self discipline. We don’t have it, we don’t want it. So any time an American start blaming the communists and blaming the Fabian Socialists or any other group, put those people down for a bunch of nuts. Morally delinquent people. I am sick and tired of hearing that kind of talk, because it is not true. No one could take it away from us if we weren’t throwing it away. And that is what we are doing. We are throwing our liberty away, we are throwing our country away, and it’s a miracle somebody hasn’t taken it away from us any faster.

It is appalling the kind of thing you hear continually about the utter breakdown of any kind of discipline. Now this is where law begins. If you don’t have a sense of law for yourself and your family, you certainly are not going to want the law to apply to anybody; you want the law to be as weak as possible, because, well, you have no sense of wrong. And so you cannot get Americans to go for a strict law and order situation across the board, in the schools, in the homes, anywhere. They don’t want it. They don’t want anybody messing up their home with a Molotov cocktail, but that is about the extent of it.

Now, that is the point where you say you want law and order, but when somebody is going to throw a Molotov cocktail against your home, it is too late. The Negro today isn’t any different than he was 20 years ago. The difference is in us, and the kind of law and order we have; so that our liberties are not being stolen from us, we are throwing them away. We don’t want them. A friend of mine, not the best kind of a man, a weak kneed compromising kind of conservative, nonetheless a conservative of sorts, if it didn’t cost him too much, was talking to a group of students, at one of our major universities about liberty. And I have mentioned this to some of you before. When he was through, the thing that shocked him was that he was defending liberty and how we ought to stand for liberty and so on. The attitude of the students was “What is so marvelous about liberty that anyone should be interested in it?” After all, from their perspective, security was a lot better. If you are given security, then you are free to enjoy drinking, sex, and anything else you want. But liberty beyond that, the kind of thing that has meant liberty to us historically, they couldn’t be less interested. Let the state take over, and let us do as we please.

So we cannot, we cannot, we are morally delinquent as Christians, and I think we have got to say this more and more bluntly, we are morally delinquent if we bring subversives. We always have subversives. Our country hadn’t been organized more than 2-3 years, and more money than the United States Treasury had was pulled in by subversives, revolutionists from France, to over throw this country. More money than the United States Treasury had. But we were not overthrown, because there was some character then. So they could spend far more than is being done today to subvert the country. And today as against the millions of Americans the subversives are a handful. As against all the communists and Fabian Socialists, those who profess to be members of fundamentalist churches, at least 25-30 million, add to that the number of Catholics in the country. Add to that the number of Lutherans, and those Reformed groups and those who profess to be good conservative Christians, and we should have enough to sweep the subversives into the Atlantic or the Pacific.

But instead they are taking us over, because we have surrendered. And the beginning of recovery is to recognize that it begins right here with the individual and his self government as a Christian. It begins with our stand in terms of these things under God. This is one reason why, this is getting to be another sermon but I’ll wind it up in a minute; This is one reason why for example movements like the (?) and the (?) and a lot of these other anti-Semitic groups succeed so readily. Why? They have a neat, pat answer. “Somebody else did it to us.” And it is so nice to believe, it takes all the blame off you shoulders. And (asking?) in a 101 ways, (asking?) mothers tell me how their boy was led astray by the army. Well, I knew him before he went into the army, and he was no good.

He was led astray because he wanted to go astray, and when he got out of sight from the family, then there was no inhibition. He did it, not the army. But it is so nice to believe that somebody else is responsible for everything that has happened. We cannot afford that luxury. Another question? Yes.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] No. But this (?) And I can be all over the world, but it is right here, and it is everywhere else where the people of God are.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes. Very definitely.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Jerusalem is spoken of as the city of God, and very often the prophets as well as the New Testament contrast the true Jerusalem, the True Jerusalem of the Son of God, and the Jerusalem which was from below, the physical Jerusalem, the Jerusalem of the people of the day, so that there were two Jerusalem’s in the mind of God and in the mind of the prophets. And of course in Revelation, it is very clearly told that the Jerusalem of God is the Jerusalem which is from above; and its enemy is the Jerusalem which is below, and it is identified with Egypt, with Sodom, with Babylon, and we are told it is the city where they crucified Christ. So the two cities of Jerusalem are sharply contrasted.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes it was.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] No, you see, Babylon disappeared under the dust of history, but when it was excavated it was there. The old Jerusalem was destroyed so that not one stone was standing upon another. Now the Jews like today to believe that the wailing wall was a survivor, but it was a reconstruction centuries later. Not one stone was left standing upon another. It was totally destroyed, leveled deliberately to the ground, plowed up by Titus, and then salt sown all over the site, so that nothing would grow. It would be a ruin. And they are unable build there, a couple generations later when they attempted to rebuild and they uncovered some of the area where the foundations of the temple had been, where there had been underground rooms, flames leaped out, that had been there all those years. As soon as they got air the smoldering fire leaped out and burned. That discouraged the builders, and it was a few centuries before there was any real construction on the site of Jerusalem.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Not about the extent of reconstruction, but the fall of Jerusalem is very clearly described by Josephus. Josephus was in Jerusalem, he was one of the leaders of the people, he apparently had delusions of becoming a messiah himself; but he was also a very intelligent man and he woke up out of these delusions because of his royal blood background, he thought he was entitled to this position apparently, he deserted to the enemy. He joined Titus and Vespasian, the two Roman generals, father and son. And he became their emissary, significantly at one time he felt prophetically inclined and he told Titus and Vespasian that they would become Emperors of Rome. At the time there was not the remotest possibility of this, but actually they did become Emperors of Rome. Josephus was used by the Romans to negotiate a surrender of the walls of Jerusalem, and a young mother threw down a rock or something and fractured his skull or broke some of his bones I have forgotten exactly what it was. But his history is an eyewitness account of many, many of these events, virtually all of them, and when he wasn’t there he talked to some of the prisoners taken, so that it is a very vivid and accurate account.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] He wrote several books, he reviewed the whole of the old testament history, in a few lengthy studies, sometimes he gives very interesting information about some of the Biblical events, sometimes he gives some of the current Jewish legends about the various peoples, so that has to be read with caution. But, this is in his antiquities. In his Wars he describes the Jewish Roman War, and it is a truthful account. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Very good, now we get back to the sermon, that was very well put. We are not putting the stone in their way, and that is what we have got to do. And that is what our purpose as Christians here today. To put that stone back in their way. To stand in terms of the faith, to declare the meaning of the sovereignty of God, the law of God, to put the stone in their way so that they might stumble and fall. To give them the cup of stumbling, the cup of poison. To declare the word, to witness to them. Because those we don’t we are going to destroy. This is the implication of it. Nobody will be the same once they are exposed to the truth.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] You hand them the cup, and it is either the cup of life or the cup of trembling. You see. Depending on how they take it. So, when you make the witness to someone clearly and fully, you either open up life to them, or ultimately death. They don’t stand still. And I have seen this repeatedly. People come to a cross roads. They may wrestle for a time, but ultimately it is either their destruction or their making.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] …?... there have been one or two books written on medicine in the Bible, (A. Wrendle Short?) a British Professor wrote the book The Bible and Medicine a few years ago which I think was an excellent starting point. And I wish someday that some doctor would carry it further. A few have written brief things about it, there is an amazing amount of knowledge there we haven’t touched. But this point you have brought up, is a very interesting one, I don’t know what to say off-hand.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Well, yes. Coming to the chemistry as of fertilizers as they are applied to soil and all, you can understand it this way: it works, the same way Marijuana works. Because for example a musician, and I have talked some years ago to a few musicians who took Marijuana, and everyone associated with them did. It gave drummers in particular, I talked to one Saxophone player, it speeds up their tempo, it makes them feel twice as alive, twice as capable. So that it is a heightening of their abilities for a time. But it takes a toll, you see. In other words, they drain something out of themselves, they cut their future. Now, there are certain drugs for example that are taken in the Arab world for various purposes which heighten men’s abilities, but they also severely restrict and destroy their future. Now, this is what fertilizers do. Fertilizers mine a soil. What they do is to, first they kill the bacteria in the soil which makes for the possibility of a life-cycle, so that the soil can absorb new materials, decaying matter, that rots, matter that has been turned into decay and made into nourishment for itself, because the soil has to feed, and the micro-organisms within the soil have to feed, and the micro organisms within the soil are living things. The fertilizers, artificial fertilizers kill that, they mine it, they give the soil as it were a hypo, a shot of LSD or of Marijuana or something, so that it produces a heightened activity for a while, and then kills it. And you can see this since World War 2 in American Agriculture. Up until that time the policy was against this sort of thing. Now, this sort of thing is taking over. As a result, for example, peaches today, and I am just picking a couple crops that I know because this is the kind of farming I knew as a boy. Peaches today would rot on the trees if they were not sprayed with, what is it--- para…

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, (Parathine?). Which is a very deadly (?) and when you spray them with this, you have to go in the field masked from head to toe, you have to close the field for at least 24 hours, even a bird going into the field during that time drops dead like that, one whiff and it has had it. Any man going in an breathing it has had it. Any man who is foolish enough when the cans of this spray are empty, to handle the cans with bare hands, is risking almost certain death, it’s that deadly. Now, what has happened to the soil? It has been killed, it has been mined, so that each year the trees become successively less and less able to stand any kind of blight that comes around. SO that whereas in the 20’s and 30’s they stood there from one end of the year without any such plague, today they have to have more and more artificial fertilizer, more and more spray, and they are spraying them 5-7 times with this deadly poison. On top of that they are now spraying grapes twice a year. This was unheard of, and the reason for it is simply that the plants are not longer healthy; they are like a hospital case, a basket case. No longer able to sustain themselves, so chemistry is keeping them alive until you reach the point as has happened first with the apple orchards; there are apple orchards today that have been yanked and the soil is dead, you can’t grow anything. It has so much arsenic and other sprays in the ground that the soil has been killed.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes. They have cradle to grave security and they are finished.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes we are doing it to ourselves medically, and of course in the cities you have a worse situation, because you have the same thing as the spray with your smog. So the only way you can treat the trees, to get anything, and you plants is with more chemicals, so you start the same cycle again whether you like it or not with a layer of chemicals on them. But as a culture it is reaching a point of crisis; and I would say if you are interested in this the best book to read is by one of the greatest agricultural authorities… Sir Albert Howard.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] An Agricultural Testament I believe its published by the Oxford University Press. An Agricultural Testament. If you check with me I can give you the first name of Howard some other time, I am not quite certain of it. But, he spent his lifetime running tests, experimental farms, both in Asia and in England and elsewhere along these lines to determine how soil should be treated. You can do a lot for your crop with LSD and Marijuana if you are ready to pay the price, you can do a lot with soil, with chemicals, if you are ready to pay the price. So if you know what you are doing, go ahead. But a Christian will recognize that this is a very costly price for a very small benefit. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes. There has been droughts world wide, but there has been areas where the draught has not hit, in other words it hasn’t been total. Parts of South America, Uruguay has had very good years lately. Portions of Western Canada has done very well. But across the face of the earth there has been a severe drought and great shortages. And so far this winter in much of your agricultural country of America the rainfall has been way below normal.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] First of all it was an increasing confidence in science. In other words, science as an answer to everything; so that we’ve done it not only in farming, we have done it in other areas, in this increasing belief that medicine is the answer for everything, this belief in salvation.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] A (validation?) of course is a very mild form of the same principle that we (?) if anyone is against (?) logically they are against the new farming. Then another important factor, the biggest producers of these chemicals have been some of your big oil companies. Now, they sincerely believe that this is the way to better living. Through Chemistry. They have almost unlimited confidence in this, and they find it hard even after all these years to believe in the dangers of it; for example we have a friend who is now more or less permanently an invalid because during the war years he was in an experimental place where they were producing DDT, and he has so much of it in his system now that he is for life, a sick man. They had absolute confidence at the time that there were no bugs, it was harmless to people, it was just harmful to certain pets. Of course we know better, but they had not changed in their attitude towards newer things they were adopting. They still proceeded on the basis of this total optimism. They are going to lift every kind of handicap. Now, these oil companies increasingly, because one of their big markets is farming, have bought up many of your farm journals. Now I happen to know who bought up the farm journal, the oil company that had, (Sun?) oil company, whose past president was and is a very fine Christian laymen, one of the finest Christians we have in the United States. But they are so sure you see that their knowledge is leading them to higher and better things.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, so that they are blinded to what they are doing, and they believe they are working for the welfare of the farmer, to help him realize the potentialities he’s never seen before. Now one of the things I noticed in so many of these farming families, the kind of ailment that have entered in. So many of the farmers have peculiar allergies and aches and pains by the time they are 50 that were unknown some time ago. And it is because of the caustic effect of these various fertilizers, and sprays, chemicals. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, also, the bug bomb that they use in the house for ants and that sort of thing. The danger that they expose themselves to with this sort of thing, and we find it a lot easier for example to spray for ants rather than cleaning the house a little better or to live with the ants. For one thing, ants have their purpose. Did you know that termites have become and increasing problem in California since WW2 because we are killing so many ants? The greatest enemy of the termite is the ant. If you have a house full of termites, just turn the ants lose on the house. Take away your poison and let it wear off, and the ants will go in and out of that house and they will kill every termite in the place. So you spray for the ants, and then you have a termite problem. [Tape Ends]