Daniel

The Target

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Millennial Studies

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 11

Track: 166

Dictation Name: RR128F11

Date: 1960s-1970s

[Garbled] is the eleventh chapter of Daniel, “The Target.” Daniel 11, “The Target.”

“1 Also I in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I, stood to confirm and to strengthen him.

2 And now will I shew thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia.

3 And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will.

4 And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those.

5 And the king of the south shall be strong, and one of his princes; and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion; his dominion shall be a great dominion.

6 And in the end of years they shall join themselves together; for the king's daughter of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement: but she shall not retain the power of the arm; neither shall he stand, nor his arm: but she shall be given up, and they that brought her, and he that begat her, and he that strengthened her in these times.

7 But out of a branch of her roots shall one stand up in his estate, which shall come with an army, and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north, and shall deal against them, and shall prevail:

8 And shall also carry captives into Egypt their gods, with their princes, and with their precious vessels of silver and of gold; and he shall continue more years than the king of the north.

9 So the king of the south shall come into his kingdom, and shall return into his own land.

10 But his sons shall be stirred up, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces: and one shall certainly come, and overflow, and pass through: then shall he return, and be stirred up, even to his fortress.

11 And the king of the south shall be moved with choler, and shall come forth and fight with him, even with the king of the north: and he shall set forth a great multitude; but the multitude shall be given into his hand.

12 And when he hath taken away the multitude, his heart shall be lifted up; and he shall cast down many ten thousands: but he shall not be strengthened by it.

13 For the king of the north shall return, and shall set forth a multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come after certain years with a great army and with much riches.

14 And in those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south: also the robbers of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; but they shall fall.

15 So the king of the north shall come, and cast up a mount, and take the most fenced cities: and the arms of the south shall not withstand, neither his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength to withstand.

16 But he that cometh against him shall do according to his own will, and none shall stand before him: and he shall stand in the glorious land, which by his hand shall be consumed.

17 He shall also set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom, and upright ones with him; thus shall he do: and he shall give him the daughter of women, corrupting her: but she shall not stand on his side, neither be for him.

18 After this shall he turn his face unto the isles, and shall take many: but a prince for his own behalf shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease; without his own reproach he shall cause it to turn upon him.

19 Then he shall turn his face toward the fort of his own land: but he shall stumble and fall, and not be found.

20 Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom: but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle.

21 And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.

22 And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant.

23 And after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people.

24 He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.

25 And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army; but he shall not stand: for they shall forecast devices against him.

26 Yea, they that feed of the portion of his meat shall destroy him, and his army shall overflow: and many shall fall down slain.

27 And both these kings' hearts shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table; but it shall not prosper: for yet the end shall be at the time appointed.

28 Then shall he return into his land with great riches; and his heart shall be against the holy covenant; and he shall do exploits, and return to his own land.

29 At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter.

30 For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant.

31 And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.

32 And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits.

33 And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days.

34 Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries.

35 And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.

36 And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.

37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.

38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.

39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.

40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.

41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.

42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

44 But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to make away many.

45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

The eleventh chapter of Daniel is like all of scripture, part of the infallible and inspired Word. But this chapter, perhaps more than any other single chapter of the Bible incurs the venom of the hostile and unbelieving critics. The reason why it incurs their venom is that it is so specific an account of history from the death of Alexander the Great to the time of the Maccabees to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, and in principle they cannot accept predictive prophecy, especially so detailed and so specific a predictive prophecy. And as a result, their hatred for this passage is almost beyond description.

This chapter has as its focal point, Jerusalem. Jerusalem is here described in two contexts. First, up to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes and then the time of the end. Now, the time of the end, or the latter days, is spoken of repeatedly in the New Testament as a term for the gospel age, as the last great era of history. And the Jerusalem that is here referred to in the latter half of the chapter, verses 36 to the end, is the true Church, the true saints of God in the gospel age, so that in both eras, to Antiochus Epiphanes and in the gospel age, the saints of God are the targets of hostile activity.

This we too often fail to recognize, that the target on the part of unbelieving man is always God and since man cannot strike directly at God, he strikes at the people of God. The world-wide revolutionary ferment which we see today has as its purpose the destruction of godly law and order, the destruction of the true Church of Christ, the death of God. This is its goal. And today, virtually every country in the world sees such revolutionary ferment. It is not necessary to describe the hostility behind the Iron Curtain, but sometimes we are too absorbed with what is going on in our midst to realize how widespread revolutionary disorders are. They hippy movement came here from Europe and the Provos are the advanced-guard hippies, the leaders. The Provos in some parts of Europe are so powerful that in some major cities they control portions of the cities and in one city it is said that the police do not dare enter in vast portions of the city. We know that in Mexico there is a Communist army in formation, ready to take over at the right time. We had an inkling of the trouble in Canada recently when de Gaulle was so absolutely unprincipled as to appeal to the radical revolutionary movement among those of French descent and to echo their battle cry. And a vast terroristic movement is in the process of building there in order to throw that entire country from end to end into flames. It has links already with the Black Nationalist movement in this country. No one need describe to us what is going on in our country.

And these movements are far closer to the governments in power than they are to us. And they are dealt with far more gently by the reigning civil governments than they deal with the godly. The target is the true Jerusalem of God. And this is one of the most important points of this chapter.

The chapter begins in verse 2 with Persia, the time of Daniel. And the fourth king from Daniel will invade Greece but fail. In verses 3 and 4 Daniel is told that a great Grecian monarch shall arise (Alexander the Great), and establish a great empire, but he shall die and his empire will not be taken over by his sons.

Then in verses 5 through 20, the next major portion of this chapter, two of the heirs of Alexander is dealt with: Seleucus, the Greek general who established a dynasty in Syria which extended for a time in India to the Indus River, and Ptolemy, who established his empire in Egypt, also a Greek empire.

And in verses 5 and 6 we have an initial description of their conflict. Egypt became powerful under Ptolemy Soter in 322-304 B.C. The Ptolemys and the Seleucids were in constant warfare for control of Palestine. (It is interesting to take a look at the name of Ptolemy Soter. Soter means savior, so that Ptolemy, the ruler, was declaring himself to be Ptolemy the Savior.) An alliance was formed between the Seleucids and the Ptolemys. Ptolemy Philadelphus (that is Ptolemy of brotherly love; he believed in the brotherhood of men you see) gave his daughter, Berenice to marry Antiochus II Theos (Antiochus the Second, the god). Their politics were ambitious, that we can be sure of. They saw themselves as saviors. To cement this alliance between Syria and Egypt, Antiochus II Theos (the god) put aside his wife, Laodicea, to marry Berenice. Two years later, Ptolemy Philadelphus died and so Antiochus abandoned Berenice because he figured now the alliance had no particular significance and he took back his previous wife, Laodicea. Laodicea proved to be ungrateful and murdered him and Berenice also, and this ended, of course, the alliance entirely.

Then in verse 7 we are told that Berenice’s brother, Ptolemy Euergetes, the third Ptolemy, invaded Syria and put Laodicea to death and returned to Egypt, according to verse 8, with much booty.

Two years later, Seleucus Callinicus regained power in Syria and marched against Ptolemy, who defeated him badly in 240 B.C.

In verse 10 we are told that his sons, Seleucus Ceranus and Antiochus the Great regained the power of their realm and extended it through Palestine. In fact, they extended it even further to the ancient Philistine territory, to Gaza.

In verses 11 and 12 we have Ptolemy Philopater, described in his attack and defeat of the Syrians at Raphia, but he did not have the character to use the victory. “He shall not be strengthened by it.”

In verses 13 – 20, Antiochus returned to battle thirteen years later, after the death of Ptolemy Philopater, and in league with Philip of Macedon, together with rebels in Egypt and apostate men in Israel, who had vain messianic hopes, he moved against Egypt and defeated them at Sidon (verse 15), but he fell victim to his pride and was not able to use his victory to any great credit. As verse 16 makes clear, he consumed the glorious, or the Promised Land. He was brutal in his treatment of Israel.

Then Antiochus married his daughter, Cleopatra, to the young Ptolemy in the hopes of controlling young Ptolemy. But she sided with her husband against her father, as verse 17 makes clear. Antiochus then conquered the Mediterranean islands contempt of Rome but was humbled by a Roman general, Lucius Scipio Asiaticus and the result was the eclipse of Antiochus (verse 19) and he was followed by Seleucus Philopater who again concentrated on Palestine and through his prime minister tried to seize the temple treasury in Jerusalem. However, both he and his monarch perished.

The next section of this chapter is verses 21 – 35 dealing with Antiochus Epiphanes. Now again, the word ‘epiphanes’ is revelatory of the claim of the monarchy. Epiphany refers to the appearance of God. And Antiochus therefore declared himself to be the appearance of God. This summed up his politics.

Now, during this period, and prior to it, the people of Israel had been steadily going down the drain as far as Phariseeism and Sadduceeism were concerned. And Antiochus Epiphanes would have had an easy time overwhelming Israel and subverting its faith totally had he not tried to press too rapidly and too hard. He is described in verse 21 as “a vile person,” that is a person who has no legitimate claim to the throne. He gained it by flatteries. He was not rightfully the first person in line for the throne. By deceit and false peace, he stemmed the power of his enemies and then he overwhelmed them like a flood. In his first Egyptian campaign, he gained victory. And then he felt secure enough to try to overthrow the religious separatism and the independence of Judea. And so the full and intense persecution of Judea began.

The apostates at first sided entirely with Antiochus and they would have remained with Antiochus, but Antiochus moved so rapidly and so brutally that he very rapidly lost all his supporters. It was a time of severe testing for Judea. It is the last deliverance by God of Jerusalem, the old Jerusalem. With this, as far as God’s intervention to deliver them, is concerned there is no more.

Earlier, God had spoken of the final judgment that was to overwhelm Judea after the coming of the Messiah. The Jewish War of 66 – 70 A.D. was that destruction. But for the time, this was a deliverance to permit the continuing existence so that Christ might come and make His witness. But this was God’s last deliverance.

Then in verses 36 following, a king or kingdom is introduced. Now, Antiochus Epiphanes is never spoken of as a king, only as he or the vile person. But a kingdom shall come “…and do according to its will and shall exalt itself and magnify itself above every god and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods…” This of course, refers to the Roman Empire which succeeded Antiochus Epiphanes in this entire area and took over Palestine. With this kingdom, certain things are introduced as characteristic now of the course of empire, of the course of political salvation.

We saw earlier that there was a difference when Rome came in, in that previously all empires had an organic conception. They saw themselves as the mystical body, as it were, the true church whereby man was to be saved. But now it was with Rome a different concept. It was salvation by works of law. Moreover, one of the characteristics described to Daniel in this chapter is Agnosticism or Atheism as the common and basic religious attitude. It is a Humanistic order. It does not believe in God or it uses God or gods merely for its own end and its basic faith is as the thirty-eighth verse indicates, and the “God of forces,” and the god of force, or munitions or arms.

Moreover, a new characteristic becomes increasingly prominent in the course of empire, the desire of women is adjured; that is, a hatred of creaturliness. Now in the ancient world, we find only one exception of this, one example of this, an exceptional one, almost as a forerunner of that which should come to pass. Alexander the Great had tendencies in this direction so that Plutarch wrote of him, he was want to say that sleep in the act of generation chiefly made him sensible, that he was mortal, as much as to say that weariness and pleasure proceed both from the same frailty and imbecility of human nature. This was considered quite notable and remarkable because it was so unusual in that era. But Alexander publically paid no attention to food, tried to go to sleep only when everyone else did, was indifferent on the whole to women because, feeling himself to be a god, we was above humanity.

Now what was unusual in Alexander became commonplace with the Roman Empire and this temper became increasingly a public pose or an actual religious practice. In particular, Stoicism gives us an excellent example of such a temper. The word that was used commonly to describe in particular Stoicism, gives us an excellent example of such a temper. The word which was used commonly to describe this condition, a word which represented the great religious goal of the Roman Empire was apathea, or we have it in English as apathy; to be indifferent to all feelings. The apathetic man who was truly god-like was a man who, when word came to him that his home had burnt down, his wife and children were all killed and his business had been ruined, everything had gone down the drain, didn’t bat an eyelash and went on discussing whatever he was discussing with his friends, or drinking his wine; totally unconcerned. This was considered to be god-like. You were above creaturliness. Apathy, passionlessness, became therefore the goal.

This subject has not been properly studied but there is a long, long history of the cultivation of apathy and its relationship to the revolution foment in our civilization. It has been part and parcel of Atheistic rationalism and Humanism. It has been part and parcel of that movement which in our day we see all over the world creating revolutionary foment, Marxism. For example, in order to set forth their apathy, the leaders of the Russian Revolution changed their names to indicate their total contempt of human feeling and the fact that they were above it. For example, Joseph Dzhugashvili changed his name to Stalin, meaning ‘steel’. Another changed his name to Miletov; hammer, and so on. Scarcely a one retained his original name. Their purpose was to indicate that they were apathetic, indifferent, passionless where the frailties of mankind were concerned. We have also this same apathy cultivated as the scientific stance so that the scientist is apathetic to all human considerations if he is a true scientist.

This then is the essence of this kingdom that is described. Apathy. An honoring of the god of forces, magnifying himself (or itself) above all. Humanism, Scientism, Modernism, Democracy, all give us this self-magnification and the devotion to the god of forces. Power is their god, whether it be military power or the power of the majority over God or over the minority, or over law.

Now this kingdom is described as waging war against the king of the north and the king of the south when they come against him and overflowing them and passing over them and conquering the countries and the lands so that we are told that this legalistic concept of world authority—salvation by law, will take precedence and overthrow every attempt to regain and re-establish the organic conception of empire which we have an attempt to re-establish in Fascism and Nazism. But we are told that this empire will spare Edom, Moab and Ammon.

Now, this is a significant fact. Edom, Moab and Ammon are cited in Ezekiel and other prophets symbolically, typically, and with very important cause. They were related peoples to Israel. Indeed, Edom regarded itself as the true chosen people of God because Edom claimed we represent the other son of Isaac and we were defrauded of the promises of the covenant by Jacob and therefore we are the true heir and the true messianic people. Thus, by Edom, Moab and Ammon are set forth the apostate churches, the organized churches who claim to be the true churches, who throw out the true people of God. And these are spared by this great empire which sees itself as the world savior. And this great empire plants its tabernacle between the seas (or the sea) and the glorious holy mountain. In other words, between the world (because the sea represents the world) and the Church, the true Church.

So we have in this the epitome of syncretism. This empire passes as representing the true Kingdom of God whereas it is the true kingdom of man. It claims to represent everything that is best in the world and to bring all the aspirations and hopes of humanity to focus. But it is the epitome instead of apostasy. It extends its hostility to the true people of God but it becomes the focal point and expression of the false church, where the target of its hostility is the people of God.

This then is the eleventh chapter of Daniel. Its conclusion we find in the concluding chapter, the twelfth. It gives us a detailed and a grim picture of history, and yet the picture is not so grim when we realize that every word of this comes from Jesus Christ, that all things are ordained by Him and nothing comes to pass apart from Him. And therefore, they move not a step apart from Him. And all that they do shall in the end only enrich Him and His people. The very hairs of our head, He declared, are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore. Just as we see this prophetic passage, we need to take it as comfort and strengthening. It gives us the assurance that it is our God who is on the throne and known unto God are all His works from the foundation of the world.

Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God, we give thanks unto Thee for this, Thy Word and we thank Thee that our times are in Thy hands and Thou doest all things well. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, though the mountains shake with a swelling thereof, though the mountains be moved into the midst of the seas, oh Lord our God, how great Thou art! How sure us Thy government. Therefore, our Father, we look unto Thee. Bless us, protect us and prosper us. Magnify Thyself in and through us, that the kingdoms of this world might become the kingdoms of Thy Lord and of His Christ. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Any questions now?

While we’re waiting for a question, I ran across something yesterday that I thought was very interesting in view of this subject we’ve just spoken of, apathy. In the June 24, 1867 New Republic on page 36, there’s a column called “Personals.” And it’s very interesting. The Personals advertise for dates. But what kind of dating? Computerized dating. “Meet your ideal mate. Computerized dating, all ages, likes,” so and so. “Disenchanted eggheads ages 22-60; mind mates of the serious specialized dating service, catering…” and so on. Another; “Computer dating service for single adults. Send for free brochure…” and so on. Now, this is Humanism, but this is Humanism that denies man, is it not? It says you are not competent to find a husband or a wife or a date for yourself. Let us take over and we will find you the perfect one, a machine-matched date or marriage. This certainly shows contempt of man and this certainly is a peculiar kind of apathy. The first one of the fallacies of any such dating and marriage is this; since of course if you do it, you do it in the belief that the machine is perfect, after all, a computer doesn’t make mistakes. And if you don’t like your husband or wife, you can’t complain. It isn’t the machine’s fault. It isn’t her fault. She’s the best you deserve. So it’s your fault and that’s a horrible destiny.

Yes…

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] No.

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Who is living in them?

[Audience] The hippies!

[Rushdoony] The hippies, yes,

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] No, but it’s interesting how they can get around any kind of regulation. If you tried anything like that, if you tried putting up a substandard home you’d have the planning commission on your neck anywhere in any county in any rural area.

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes…

[Audience] {?}.. of the Wailing Wall?

[Rushdoony] The Wailing Wall? It has no biblical significance. It is believed that the Wailing Wall represents a part of the original and old city of Jerusalem from the time of Christ, but in actuality, it has no connection with it. Every portion of the old Jerusalem was destroyed. It was destroyed to the point that not one stone, as our Lord said, was left standing upon another. It was {?} and it was then plowed over.

The Wailing Wall represents a reconstruction later on in Jerusalem using some of the old and original stones, so the stones in the Wailing Wall go back to the old Jerusalem, but they are not, as a wall, any part thereof.

There was no reconstruction in Jerusalem for almost a century after. The one attempt that was made ended in disaster. They began to dig down to uncover the old foundations in the area of the temple and subterranean flames apparently still burning down underneath after all those decades, first {?} when exposed to air and the men who attempted the reconstruction fled in terror.

Yes…

[Audience] How do you {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes….

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] No. This is different, but the one is based on the other. In this case, what it involved was the total desecration of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes to establish his own image there, his imperial image, and again later this was done by the Romans when they captured Jerusalem and before they destroyed it.

Yes…

[Audience] The {?} at Rome… {?}

[Rushdoony] Well, yes, that’s a good question. How authentic are the various places, Golgotha and the others.

By about the 4th century, Christians were interested in Palestine as peace began to descend upon the Church, and so there was some interest in going to Palestine, seeing these sights. And so they went back and did identify many of them. Subsequently in our day, archaeological work has dealt with the same subject and they have confirmed the authenticity of many of the sites. In some cases they have been questioned.

But many of the biblical sites of course, have continued to this day from Abraham’s day without damage. For example, we have the tomb of some of the patriarchs, Abraham for example, and Sarah’s tomb and so on. All these things through the centuries have been maintained. They’ve been maintained with considerable respect because first the Israelites and in modern times the Jews have regarded them as holy. The Christians regard them as holy. The Mohammadans regarded them as holy, and so they were preserved from any kind of damage. In fact, the very fact that there are three contending groups interested in them has helped preserve them from the archaeological desecration. But there’s no question that some of these go back not merely to our Lord’s day but to the time of Abraham.

Our time is…

Is there another question?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Can the nation be considered pagan and burial Christian? Well, the whole doctrine of the resurrection very early led to the belief that burial was the proper way. The Christians in fact were almost unique in the ancient world in the care they gave the body. I say almost. You had a few people, like the Egyptians, who gave care to the dead. But in most cases there was a fear of the dead and a fear of their spirit.

Now, the Christians took care of the body because they believed, as did the Old Testament believers, in the resurrection of the body. They were not afraid of the dead. They believed in the power of God, not in the power of spirits. The pagan religions believed that when a person died, he was envious and jealous of the living because they had a fuller and better life and so he would come back to do them harm out of resentment so that there was a great fear in the ancient world, and in the modern world apart from Christ of the dead. Having worked among American Indians, I know how they felt about these things and all of the precautions they took when they buried a person, to put them out of sight and to prevent him from returning. One of the things they did, and this was a sure tip—you always knew whether a person who died was, whether his family were Christians. They would put branches of rosebushes, wild roses, across the bodies to keep the spirit from falling out of a coffin and following them home. As he would start to fall out of the body, the thorns would prick him and say, “Stay down!” But the respect for the body, that’s Christian. The others shoveled them under out of sight or burned them or did one thing or another to dispose of them.

Now, burial there has been pre-eminently the Christian treatment of the body. The only exceptions to it are the Egyptians and some of the Orientals like the Chinese where you have ancestor worship.

This does not mean, however, that any other form of burial or cremation is necessarily non-Christian, because we are not resurrected in this flesh but we put on a new body created by God so that we cannot condemn cremation as non-Christian, even though the background of respect for the body is the specifically Christian character.

There are just a few items I wanted to pass on to you. One or two of you have asked about a book dealing with the doctrine of the church, and I think the perhaps best (there’s no book that anyone will entirely agree with, including myself) but this by D.Douglas Bannerman, The Scripture Doctrine of the Church is a good one in terms of what the Bible teaches, published by Eerdmans in Grand Rapids, what it does is to go through the Bible beginning with Abraham and then it goes on from the time of Abraham to Moses and so on and from then on to the New Testament, the New Testament period and through the entire New Testament period to the beginning of the second century. So it is essentially an interpretation of the biblical passages on the doctrine of the Church.

Then a few things that I think are of interest; those of you get Strom Thurman’s Reports to the People perhaps saw his report of July 31, 1967 entitled, “The Civil War” and he said, for the first time in its history, our nation has reached the brink of civil war. More than a century has passed since the close of the War Between the States. That was a war of region against region. Today it is a war of citizens against the structures of free government. And then he goes on to say that there are five causes for this, and they work hand in hand:

         Communism is the catalyst which has precipitated the present situation

         The false compassion that has been spewed out by our national leaders over the past few years. Environment alone has never created crime, nor has poverty by itself initiated bitterness. Favoritism by those in positions of responsibility from the presidency down, has engendered the feeling that society owes everyone a guaranteed standard of living

         The preaching of civil disobedience and the so-called non-violent resistance against society

         The insidious court decisions that have disarmed law enforcement and made law the protector of wickedness

         The criminal instincts that lie hidden in the hearts of man. All men must struggle with the grace of God to overcome their baser natures. Mob rule drowns the pangs of guilt and so on

The entire statement is an excellent one. At the same time, in The Washington Report of Allen and Scott for the same date, July 31, there is a very interesting statement that antipoverty workers definitely had a hand in the incendiary circumstances in the riots that led to the tragic upheavals. And it goes on to say, strong indications are emerging of the existence of a central directing force instigating the rash of racial explosions throughout the country.

At the same time, it is of interest to read that there have been meetings held in the east and here in this area in Fullerton which speak about the need for more action by the negroes, total liberation from white law or we burn America down! This is from The Santa Anna Register, Sunday, July 30, 1967. And these statements were made by Black Nationalist Thomas Jacquet, at a final session of a Commission on Church and Race Conference, held in the First Presbyterian Church of Fullerton. A similar statement was made in Washington, D.C. at a conference held at an episcopal church there.

Meanwhile, it is interesting to hear that the police in Detroit said that they were totally helpless to do anything because they were ordered to do nothing. “We could have put this thing down without troopers and without a single one of those fancy combat veterans, but City Hall, our man Jerry, it’s like telling us, ‘oh no, do not touch them, don’t say a mean word, you’ll hurt their feelings.’” And he goes on to say that they might as well have been asked to say, ‘oh Mr. Looter, is that too heavy for you? Be careful you do not trip taking that color T.V. out of the man’s store.’ And it is significant at the same time the statement on July 30 made by Mayor Jerome Cavanagh of Detroit. You’ll recall a year ago I said that the whole purpose of these laws was to destroy local law and order, the local police, to create a national police. Mayor Jerome Cavanagh of Detroit, who refused to allow his police to do anything, calls for the creation of a special 1,000-man federal police force in each major city to fight riots such as the one that left 40 dead in Detroit. [Tape abruptly ends]