Daniel in Book Form

Ritual Center of the Earth

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Millennial Studies

Lesson: 4-12

Genre: Lecture

Track: 157

Dictation Name: RR128B4

Location/Venue:

Year: 1960’s-1970’s

Almighty God our Heavenly Father we come to Thee Thy people, glad to be in Thy presence in fellowship with Thee. We praise Thee and to receive of Thy Bounty through Thy grace. We thank Thee our Father for the joy of salvation and for the glory of Thy word. We thank Thee that Thy word speaks to us with thy comfort in our sorrows and darkness, in despair, and gives us hope. We thank Thee that Thy word is unto us the gospel of good news. We thank Thee that it is Thy voice. And that Thou art the God of faith and the God that dost ordain all things so that in Thy word we have a lamp unto our feet and a blessed assurance in the face of all things. Give us help therefore our Father to day by day hear your word and answer it, and to live in its music and to march to its beat. Grant that our lives be a procession ending in immortality and a discipline to be exchanged only for the completeness for lasting service. We thank Thee our Father for our fellowship in Thee. We thank Thee our Father that in day by day Thou doest strengthen us in our faith and does draw us closer to Thee and to one another in Thee. Make us a joyful and victorious people in Thee. Unto the end that we might magnify and glorify Thy holy name. In Jesus name, Amen.

Our text today is the fourth chapter of Daniel; The Ritual Center of the Earth. Daniel 4; The Ritual Center of the Earth.

“4 Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you.

2 I thought it good to shew the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward me.

3 How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation.

4 I Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in mine house, and flourishing in my palace:

5 I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me.

6 Therefore made I a decree to bring in all the wise men of Babylon before me, that they might make known unto me the interpretation of the dream.

7 Then came in the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers: and I told the dream before them; but they did not make known unto me the interpretation thereof.

8 But at the last Daniel came in before me, whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the name of my God, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods: and before him I told the dream, saying,

9 O Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in thee, and no secret troubleth thee, tell me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and the interpretation thereof.

10 Thus were the visions of mine head in my bed; I saw, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great.

11 The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth:

12 The leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all: the beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof, and all flesh was fed of it.

13 I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and, behold, a watcher and an holy one came down from heaven;

14 He cried aloud, and said thus, Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit: let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches:

15 Nevertheless leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth:

16 Let his heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's heart be given unto him; and let seven times pass over him.

17 This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.

18 This dream I king Nebuchadnezzar have seen. Now thou, O Belteshazzar, declare the interpretation thereof, forasmuch as all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known unto me the interpretation: but thou art able; for the spirit of the holy gods is in thee.

19 Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was astonied for one hour, and his thoughts troubled him. The king spake, and said, Belteshazzar, let not the dream, or the interpretation thereof, trouble thee. Belteshazzar answered and said, My lord, the dream be to them that hate thee, and the interpretation thereof to thine enemies.

20 The tree that thou sawest, which grew, and was strong, whose height reached unto the heaven, and the sight thereof to all the earth;

21 Whose leaves were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all; under which the beasts of the field dwelt, and upon whose branches the fowls of the heaven had their habitation:

22 It is thou, O king, that art grown and become strong: for thy greatness is grown, and reacheth unto heaven, and thy dominion to the end of the earth.

23 And whereas the king saw a watcher and an holy one coming down from heaven, and saying, Hew the tree down, and destroy it; yet leave the stump of the roots thereof in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven times pass over him;

24 This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the most High, which is come upon my lord the king:

25 That they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.

26 And whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots; thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee, after that thou shalt have known that the heavens do rule.

27 Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity.

28 All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar.

29 At the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon.

30 The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?

31 While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee.

32 And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.

33 The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws.

34 And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation:

35 And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?

36 At the same time my reason returned unto me; and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honour and brightness returned unto me; and my counsellors and my lords sought unto me; and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me.

37 Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.”

This chapter of the book of Daniel is not written by Daniel. It is written by Nebuchadnezzar. A slight remarkable fact. Daniel infused the entire proclamation of Nebuchadnezzar in his book. And we have Nebuchadnezzar's own account as he under the Holy Spirit expressed it. Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. Dreams were very important to the Babylonians because with their evolutionary perspective they believed that the lasting impersonal forces of the universe came to their expression in the high point of history, in and through man. And thus it was that these blind and impersonal forces expressed themselves in blind and impersonal ways. And therefore in the dreams of men could be seen veiled the hints of the next step in evolution.

We have a similar perspective in Freudianism which in effect holds to the infallibility of dreams as the surest indication of man's nature and gives itself to the study of dreams that it might know and understand man and the world. So it was with the Babylonians.

In Nebuchadnezzar's dream God spoke to him. The interpretation of dreams was important to the Babylonians and so Nebuchadnezzar went finally to Daniel. The dream was of a great tree; a tree rooted solidly on the earth and reaching into the Heavens. It covered the earth. The sight thereof to the end of all the earth. And under it the world dwelleth as it were, and the top of it was a part of the heavens. This tree was Nebuchadnezzar.

And Daniel said that the interpretation was that he should be cut off even as the tree in the green lands and for a season become even as the beasts in the fields unless he repented. The dream does not gain full significance for us unless we understand what the significance of this tree was in Nebuchadnezzar's dream. Because though the dream was form God it was thoroughly and carefully in terms of Babylonian thinking, in Nebuchadnezzar's thinking, in fact the thinking of pagan antiquity.

One of the basic concepts in the world of antiquity was the ritual center of the earth concept. What does this mean? Now if we are interested in knowing what the driving power in a car in an automobile is it is a very simple problem to us. It is the motor. The car goes because the motor provides the driving force. Now man throughout all history has been interested in determining what is the driving force in history, in the world, in the universe. And men have insistently looked in this world, not beyond this world. And men have consistently said that the driving force in history is the central point of power in history. That man and an empire which represents the greatest power on earth. So that wherever you have a great empire there is the center of history. There is the driving force of history. The Assyrians therefore believed that Nineveh represented the ritual center of the earth because the driving force of the earth and the universe was there in them for they governed the world. They determined history. This was not a new concept with them, nor was it new with Babylon. And this is a concept that has past on through history from one people to another so that each has seen itself as the center of the earth, the central power of the earth so that everything else has meaning in terms of them.

When I was among the Shoshone Indians I was interested to know that the Shoshone’s did not call themselves the Shoshone’s. They had no names for themselves. They had names for every other tribe but no names for themselves. Who were they? Why we are the people. The people. We don't need a name. Other's do but, not us.

Look to the British empire, and to this day the stamps of the British empire do not have any identifying mark. They do not say Great Britain. Let all others identify themselves but not they. They are the people. They are the center.

Even more in antiquity this concept was open to the point that the nations saw themselves as the ritual center of the earth and the tree of life. All peoples were familiar with this concept. They remembered it from the Garden of Eden in the story of their forefathers. And each of them as they gained power said, "We are the tree of life. We control life, we control history, and we control man. Therefore we are the tree of life". And so one of the ancient symbols of empire with each successive empire was the pillar which was a ritualized stylized tree. To indicate that the empire that ruled the world declared we have become the tree of life and we govern all things. We are the God of the universe. The God of history. The Lord of time and eternity.

So it was that Nebuchadnezzar saw himself in this dream as the great tree. The tree of life. More over one of the basic concepts in the ancient world that was used by every power that became the world empire is that of a shepherd. We find this for example in the dynasty of the Shepherd kings who ruled Egypt. They ruled the world they were the Shepherd Kings. Because to be the great Shepherd was to be God.

David declared in the 23rd Psalm “The Lord is my Shepherd, Jehovah is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” God alone he declared is the true Shepherd. And over and over again through the prophets God declared himself as the good Shepherd of men. And our Lord Jesus Christ declared I am the good Shepherd. In which statement He declared, "I am God. I am Jehovah." and He gave a special force to that statement by not only identifying himself as the good Shepherd but by using the pretence "I am".

But Nebuchadnezzar declared himself in his inscriptions and proclamations to be Nebuchadnezzar the great shepherd, the great king. He was god on earth. He was the creator. He was the governor of men and of nations. But, this is not all. Like other imperial cities before him Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon carried out still a further theme. Babylon was the city built four square.

The square is an ancient symbol of perfection. And so every city that declared itself to be the world center. The ruler over men. God on earth. Built their city four square and had in its center and central sanctuary a pillar, a stylized tree to declare we are the tree of life. We are the heavenly city; the city built four square.

But God declares through Moses when He gave him the pattern for the tabernacle that it was the Holy of Holy's the dwelling place of God, the Eternal throne which was to be built four square a perfect cube. And the camp was to be around it in a form of a square saying that in effect that their perfection came only from the throne of God and the absolute judgment of God. That no human perfection can and no human could stand apart from being established around the sovereignty of God. He as the center of the earth, the center of history. It's motive power.

But Babylon the city of man was built on a square. Even as in ancient Egypt Akhenaten built a new city to signify his rule, a square city. Nebuchadnezzar when he had been crowned had gone to the temple of [Assabdilla?] and there to mark him as the empire of Babylon he had gone forward to the center of the sanctuary to the engraved image. The image of Baal. Baal as the image of the impersonal blind forces in of nature that are evolving in the Universe. Baal standing there with an outstretched hand and Nebuchadnezzar had taken that hand in a handshake to indicate: “I am now the power in history. All the evolving forces in history have made me the God the tree of life, the great shepherd, the builder of the city that is the center of the earth.”

And now this dream; he who claimed to be the great shepherd, the tree of life. A warning to him from the God of Daniel of what was to come. "Wherefore oh king let my council be acceptable unto thee and break off thy sins, thy righteousness, and Thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. That it may be a lengthening of thy tranquility. Therefore repent oh king and turn unto the Lord. Break off thy sins by righteousness and thy iniquities by showing mercy to the poor."

After his fashion we know that Nebuchadnezzar tried to do this. But, he did it terms of his religion. After all was he not the tree of life? After all was he not the great Lord of history? Therefore in terms of this religion of self-righteousness he was going to be good to man. And this God out there of Daniels who was somehow this strange person who was not connected with this world and history, and with the powers of the universe that had manifested themselves in Nebuchadnezzar, perhaps this God would then be satisfied, and Nebuchadnezzar would be at peace with everyone. And so he began works of social welfare. Welfare legislations, activities designed to make himself a benevolent King. To provide security for the poor. To provide welfare for those who were in need. To take care of everyone who had any problems. And so there was a time when Nebuchadnezzar could in his proclamations call attention as he addressed the gods and as he addressed the people to how much he was doing. How his reign was now filled with works of righteousness whereby the poor and the needy were being taken care of and he Nebuchadnezzar was truly a shepherd of his sheep. It was the epitome of self-righteousness.

It was precisely the same kind of thing that the politicians today are doing as they claim to be the tree of life for the poor, and the sick, and the aged in this world. And say we will be the tree of life. Come and rest under our shadow and we will give you cradle to grave security.

At the end of 12 months he walked in the palace in the kingdom of Babylon and as Nebuchadnezzar looked out from the heights of the palace and the city. There the splendor and the glory that was his and how he had brought prosperity to the people, help to the needy. He spake and said is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty. Nebuchadnezzar was congratulating himself. The fact that Daniel's God had asked him to do he had done. He had by his social welfare legislation been a righteous man had he not? He was being a good shepherd a good controller of history was he not? He had in other words compounded his sin in the very attempt to avoid it. Because he had seen righteousness in terms of an anti-godly faith. A humanistic one.

While the word was in the king's mouth there came a voice from heaven saying, 'Oh Nebuchadnezzar to thee it was spoken, thy kingdom is departed from thee." And that same hour was the thing fulfilled. Nebuchadnezzar was driven from men. And he did eat grass like oxen and his body was wet with the dew of heaven. And his hair grew long and was mattered like feathers. And his nails like bird claws. And by the providence of God the awe and respect for Nebuchadnezzar among his followers was so great that for seven seasons the scripture says, that is the fullness of the required time of judgment, Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom was ruled by his counselors as the regent. We know from history that there was a time when suddenly Nebuchadnezzar dropped out of sight. And suddenly there were no more documents, no more proclamations in his name; only in the name of his counselors. For Nebuchadnezzar in that time as the scripture makes clear was like an animal kept in the grounds of the palace. His condition is a rare one but it is known in science as zoanthropy and related to lycanthropy.

“And at the end of the day I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven and understanding returned unto me and I blessed the most high. And I praised and honored Him that liveth forever. His dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom is from generation to generation.” And Nebuchadnezzar goes on to declare his faith. He turned to God and he was saved, he was converted. And his confession is a marvelous one. He confesses first of all the absolute power and sovereignty of God before whom all the inhabitants of this earth are reputed as nothing. And He does according to His will in the army of Heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay His hand or say unto Him, "What doest Thou?" Second he manifested repentance for his pride. And third he confessed his sin. He was a saved man. And he tells us moreover; I was established in my kingdom an excellent majesty was added unto me. So that like Job his later end was more blessed then his former ambition.

To this end Nebuchadnezzar's part of the Bible; where, inspired of God, he, one of the greatest emperors of all history, pens a portion of the scripture. God blessed Nebuchadnezzar and gave him a glorious reign to the end. And so it is that Nebuchadnezzar who represented in some respects the epitome of the city of man became also a servant of the city of God. And thus it is that in the day's image God portrayed him as gold because he ended as gold. Even though his original dream ended as dust. This was Nebuchadnezzar's faith; that God is sovereign. That it is not men and nations that are the tree of life, the center of the earth. That the driving force of history we can find the driving force of the car under the car but we cannot find the driving force of history on earth. It is in Heaven. It is the triune God. And this God is our God. And before Him all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to His will. And none can stay His hand and say unto Him what doest Thou.

Thus one of the greatest emperors of all history testified to the sovereign and over ruling power of God. It had humbled him. Broken him, reduced him to the level of an animal, and then exalted him.

This God is our God and if we put our trust in Him we can face our tomorrows in confidence. For none can stay His hand or say unto Him what doest Thou?

Let us pray:

Our Lord and our God we give thanks unto Thee that Thou are He who didst humble Nebuchadnezzar and did redeem him. And Thou art our savior also. We thank Thee that our today's and our tomorrows are in Thine hands. And that the center of History, the driving force of history is not in Moscow or London or Paris or in the UN or Washington, or anywhere else, but in Thy hands. Teach us therefore to keep our hearts firmly fixed There where our true joys are to be found, even in Jesus Christ our Lord. in His name we pray. Amen.

Are there any questions now?

[Audience] Indiscernible

[Rushdoony]

Well, let’s have the questions first on Daniel 4, and anything related to it. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] The evidence indicates however that they did scatter out into all the corners of the earth. We have no way of knowing how far they went because we don't have the records. We do know that which forty years ago they doubted, that they did reach apparently China and India. St. Thomas died on a return trip to India. We do know that they covered Europe. We do know that they covered the northern parts of Africa and in those days there was not any life beyond the central portions of Africa, in fact there was none until the white man settled South Africa.

So that we do have an indication that they took in not only the civilized portion which they thoroughly covered but they apparently went into other areas as well. Because there are traces of the outreach into other areas. However, they did thoroughly cover the civilized world because they found their best method in those days being to go to the urban centers. Paul for example went to every urban center of any consequence and preached there. And then the people in the urban centers had the responsibility of ministering to the surrounding areas, and so it was that there was a passage from the urban centers to all the surrounding area. The urban centers were first however, Christianized because it was so easy to reach the population there. In fact our word pagan comes from that fact. Because within the Roman Empire the cities were first reached, and pagan means country people. So the country people were the ones who remained pagan longest. And that's how we get the word pagan. Yes?

[Audience] …?...

[Rushdoony] No, they didn't maintain the purity of it. The contact in the far East was renewed and broken many times. For example we know that several establishments of Christianity in China. Apparently at the same time of St. Thomas and the Apostolic period. Then later on there were a number of establishments. The (Nestorians?) had missions in China and a vast number of churches, bishops, and other things. We know that the Church of Armenia had extensive missions and churches in China for a number of centuries. We know for example that during the time of Genghis Kahn and Kublai Kahn that there were a great number of churches and there were all kinds of Europeans in the court in the far east as well as in India. The Muslim invasions in this area as well as the downfall of the Dynasty established by Ghengis Kahn led to the decline of the church in China and the Mongol invasions in India. However even then it was renewed periodically, there were various schools of rising and waning vitality. In the last couple of centuries the church did decline, apparently markedly. Yes?

[Audience member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, Yes. Zoanthropy is when they take a bovine form, Lycanthropy means, and that is more common, when they assume the role of a wolf, to the point of actually killing like a wolf and drinking blood and so on.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] No, Lycanthropy has a long history in civilization in Ancient Greece, in Medieval Europe, and there are signs of its revival in our times. Not much is known about it, there are a few works that have come out in the last few years on Lycanthropy. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] A good question. When God spoke to Israel He spoke directly through the mouths of the prophets openly. But you are right he spoke to Pharaoh and He spoke to Nebuchadnezzar through dreams. The reason being of course, the Biblical faith is in a totally self-conscious God who is sovereign and omnipotent, all wise, all holy, and totally personal.

Now, a totally personal God speaks openly and infallibly. Now an impersonal God doesn't speak openly or self-consciously. So, if you are a believer that the god or gods of the universe is a blind impersonal force working in nature, how is that god going to speak to you? Well through dreams, because he is an unconscious god and he is going to speak to you in an unconscious state. As a result, for god to be heard by these people he had to give them a dream that they would consider important, and that they would seek the interpretation for it. We do know from Babylonian records for example that dreams of a very strong sort were very carefully recorded as the matter by the monarchs who narrated them upon awakening, and record it for the court scientist or magicians who were what we would say are psychoanalysts, to analyze. Because what was to be the next step of nature or the Baaline or the gods? Why, the dreams would tell them. So these dreams were carefully recorded and carefully analyzed, and some psychoanalysts have given a deal of attention to this aspect in ancient history. But this was the reason, God spoke to them in a way that would be understandable to them and would gain their attention.

[Audience] …?...

[Rushdoony] No, no. These dreams were clearly sent from God. And of course Nebuchadnezzar anytime he had a dream that was a very strong dream he would call in a stenographer and would dictate the dream to him and then it would be turned over to the magicians or we would say psychoanalysts, for analysis. Because this was important for the life of Babylon, to know what Nature was going to bring forth next. Yes?

[Audience] …?...

[Rushdoony] Daniel was a high ranking civil service official, he was president of the college of governors over all the provincial governors or rulers at one point in his career. But, because of his interpretation of the dream at the beginning, he had sufficient prestige in this respect in Nebuchadnezzar's mind so that at certain key points in his life he was called in to explain these dreams that God had sent. In this case however I would say that the court officials did not want to interpret this dream. The first one they could not interpret, this one they were afraid to interpret because it was so obvious; and who wants to tell a king that he is going to be cut off?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] No, we know that Nebuchadnezzar prospered and died of old age ultimately, and the next chapter actually deals with his grandson. It skips over a period of time and when it speaks of his Father Nebuchadnezzar, this is a term used for either grandfather or father, it was applicable to both. Your question now?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] The statement conscience is the most sacred of all property. Well, that statement sounds good, but it says a little too much. The Bible…

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] No, it isn't and in the second place conscience varies. For example we are told in scripture concerning the ungodly that they have even their conscience seared and defiled. In other words, an evil man doesn't have the same conscience that you do. His conscience is so scarred that his sensitivity is lost. For example if you have a great many scars and calluses on your fingers you no longer have the same sensitivity there; well there conscience has lost a great deal of sensitivity because it has been so thoroughly defiled. Now they are never free from the judgment of God in their hearts, but they do desensitize a great deal of it by their depravity or by their habits; a great many people drink to dull there conscience.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] It says a little too much. It is an overstatement. Conscience is important. Conscience has an important role, a God given role. So that there is an element of truth to it but it is a little over-stated definitely.

[Audience] Indiscernible

[Rushdoony]

I'd say that is the answer.

[Audience] Indiscernible

[Rushdoony]

Yes, yes the civil ruler was also a religious leader. And this is not an entirely alien concept in the modern world. For example in the church of England in the beginning the head of the church was also the head of the state. [??} And this is not entirely gone today in the church of England. And so you have this little [??} and we are definitely evolving into the same kind of thinking in this country. Some of the things we are; a few years ago we were attacking and the Japanese had become common place to us. We were very much against the Shinto shrine [??}. But I notice the congress has been setting up all kinds of national shrines across the country and we have a species of ancestor worship there. If you want to call FBI and [??} and presidents ancestors. But, when they call the homes of these people a shrine they are using a religious word. A shrine or temple is the dwelling place of a god. And a national shrine is the dwelling place of the god of that nation. So we have a national shrine.

[Audience] Indiscernible

[Rushdoony]

Johnson is preparing to make his ranch a shrine after he is gone.

Well I think with that we can be dismissed.