Revelation

Throne of Power

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Prerequisite/Law

Lesson: 9-30

Genre: Talk

Track: 177

Dictation Name: RR129E9

Location/Venue:

Year: 1960’s-1970’s

Almighty God our heavenly Father, we give thanks unto Thee that day after day Thy mercies are (?). That every morning brings us fresh reminder of Thy protecting care and of Thy grace. We commit therefore our Father, all our hopes to Thee in Jesus Christ. We thank thee that Thou hast undertaken for us, and that Thou dost go before us to prepare a place for us. And so, our Father, we come to Thee to nourish ourselves on Thy word, to be strengthened by Thy Spirit, and to submit ourselves afresh to the discipline of Thy word. In Jesus name, amen.

Our scripture is the 4th chapter of the book of Revelation. Revelation 4, Throne of Power.

“4 After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

2 And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.

3 And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.

4 And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.

5 And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.

6 And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.

7 And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.

8 And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

9 And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever,

10 The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”

The first section of the book of Revelation gives us the letters of Christ to the churches. Letters of rebuke, of comfort, and of discipline. The second section of Revelation begins with the vision of heaven. But the fourth chapter of Revelation as it speaks concerning the vision from heaven says nothing whatsoever to satisfy our curiosity about heaven. The Bible never speaks to satisfy our curiosity, only to tell us that which is needful for our salvation, and for equipping us morally to be men of God.

It is the characteristic of the various cults and occultist groups to try to satisfy man’s curiosity. But the Bible never speaks to that purpose.

The fourth chapter of Revelation was addressed to the churches after the letters, in order to answer questions in their minds. Christ indeed had spoken the word of rebuke, and of comfort, and of discipline. But the churches nonetheless were disheartened and discouraged as they faced the overwhelming problems in the world round about them; a world that hated them and was at war against them. A world filled with monstrous evil. And the cry of the church at that time, as Revelation itself tells us, was: “How long oh Lord? How long?”

We too can sometimes feel the same sense of discouragement that the churches of the day felt. When we look round about we find indeed a vast world of apostasy. The new Catholic Encyclopedia, an official publication, tells us; and this is revealing in that church in particular; that the stories concerning the birth of our Lord are largely myth and legend. At the recent general convention of the Episcopal church, 9 million dollars over a period of 3 years, 3 million dollars a year, was voted to further the Civil Rights Revolution. And the featured speaker of the convention was Saul Alinsky, who is both a socialist and an atheist. And when he was complemented on his speech and told he was a wonderful Christian, it is reported that he answered “If he were called that again he would sue the church.”

When we look further we find the world council of churches proclaiming a gospel of revolution, and we find all around us our own civil government subsidizing revolution. And in the face of all these things the future does seems to be a very difficult and a very bleak one. The words of Revelation speak not only to the early church but to the church of every age. And they give us a picture of the universe from the perspective of heaven, of the throne of God.

“After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.”

And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.”

The first voice John heard was the voice of Christ, the voice which he had already heard. Christ is the key to heaven, the gateway to God. “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” And Jesus Christ now opens up for His church a perspective on the world and on history from the throne of heaven.

The central fact of heaven, indeed almost the only thing that we are shown is the throne. This is the key. The central fact of heaven is not angelic bliss, but the absolute authority of God over heaven and earth. Moreover the God who is portrayed for us is portrayed as one who is invisible. A blaze of jeweled light goes forth from the throne. Man cannot see God, God remains eternally inexhaustible, incomprehensible to man. And yet God is the God who reveals Himself in Jesus Christ, so that in Christ we can know God wholly, but not exhaustively. To know God exhaustively we would have to have the mind of God, a mind equal to God, which is an impossibility. So that we can never know the fullness of God, but we can know God truly in that in Christ we know Him. And God is true to Himself, so that which He reveals of Himself is consistent with the whole of His being.

In this blaze of light that comes from the throne like jewel stones, there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. The rainbow of course is given to us in scripture from the time of Noah as a sign of Gods covenant of peace. And so it is the rainbow is he portrayed as Gods covenant of peace with creation, with His chosen ones who are to be heirs of creation. And especially since the color of an emerald, green, predominates in this rainbow round the throne, it is a promise of eternal spring, a promise of life, of growth, of power in Christ; and through our covenant of peace with God.

Round about the throne are seated four and twenty elders, clothed in white raiment, and they had on their heads crowns of gold.

The twenty four elders stand for the fullness of the church, of the Old Testament and the New. The church of all ages. Twelve for the twelve tribes of the Old Testament era, and twelve for the twelve disciples signifying the New Testament church, the Christian church. The fullness of the church is seen reigning with Christ, clothed in white raiment; that is, garbed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the imputed righteousness; crowned, indicating their dominion in Christ.

“And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices:”

The whole universe is in a blaze of lightning going forth from the throne. Lightning signifying the judgement of God upon a world in rebellion against Him. And so it is the lightning indicates Gods judgement upon the world, even as the flashing of emerald green indicates His covenant of peace with us.

“And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal:”

This is one of the most familiar lines in all of scripture. Very early the church, recognizing its meaning, incorporated this into many, many hymns. Throughout the Middle Ages this again appeared in innumerable hymns, and in the modern era also we find the Crystal Sea, a sea of glass, again and again a subject of hymns.

The sea is identified for us in Revelation as the world, but it appears to us very differently. Later on in Revelation when we see the one world order emerging out of the sea, the sea is seen as dark and troubled, stormy. So bleak that a mans eyes cannot penetrate into it. and certainly if we go down to the ocean and look at it, we cannot look down into the depths. No more can man as he looks out on the world and on history, on the future, penetrate into it; see into tomorrow. Be able to say: “I am able to chart out the future, and here is what will take place in history in the next 10, 20, or a thousand years.” The world and history as man sees it is closed to him. But it is portrayed from the throne of God as a sea of glass like unto crystal. What does this mean?

It means that as God views the universe, the whole of creation from the throne, it is as clear as crystal. It is like glass before Him, ablaze with the light from His throne, so that nowhere in the universe is there a dark corner, a hidden segment, a fact that is not illumined by God, nor created by Him. There is thus not a single iota, an atom, in the entire universe, that is apart from God or exists apart from Him, or can be understood apart from Him. All is clear as crystal to the throne of God. As the council of Jerusalem declared and the book of Acts records: “Known unto God are all His works from the foundation of the world.”

God, having created all things, governs all things absolutely. And all things are known to Him from the beginning to the end. Thus, every fact in history, the enemy, every natural disaster, all things are a part of the providence of God. Are as clear as crystal from the throne. Nothing can work against the sovereign and the almighty Creator.

And so the church is given a picture of history as totally, absolutely controlled, by the Almighty God.

And round about the throne were four creatures. The first like a lion, the second like a calf, the third like a man, and the fourth like a flying eagle. These are the cherubim’s, who in themselves sum up the whole of creation, and represent the whole of creation. The whole of creation in its glory.

“And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.”

The whole of creation is seen here in its ultimate destiny, as called to praise the almighty one, and to acknowledge the wisdom and the glory of His ways. And the four and twenty elders, the fullness of the church, is portrayed as similarly praising God.

“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”

This, then, is the beginning of the second section of Revelation. A vision of the universe from the throne, declaring to us that God as Lord of all things, governs all things absolutely. So that the universe is Gods universe. “The very wrath of man shall praise Him.” Therefore with the Cherubim and Seraphim, we can cry out: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Heaven and Earth are full of the majesty of Thy glory.”

Let us pray. Almighty God our heavenly Father, we give thanks unto Thee that the universe, Thy creation, is totally governed by Thee. That towards us, Thou hast a covenant of peace, and towards the world, a covenant of judgment. Give us grace therefore to walk daily mindful of these things, so that we may be more than conquerors through Him that loved us, even Jesus Christ our Lord. In His name we pray, amen.

Are there any questions now, first of all with respect to our lesson? Any questions now? Yes.

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] Is there any overriding purpose that is shown throughout Revelation. Yes. Revelation was given to comfort the church as it was facing a troubled world. Its purpose was to assure them of the sovereignty of God, Gods purpose in history, and to assure them that Gods purposes would triumph in history, as well as in eternity. So that the enemy would be put down under their feet. It is therefore to assure the church of victory. Yes?

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] Sir Isaac Newton and Louis Pasteur? What was their faith. On sir Isaac Newton I can speak with a little more knowledge. Sir Isaac Newton was a very devout church goer, who believed the Bible very, very literally. In fact he wrote a commentary on the book of Revelation. In his philosophy of course Sir Isaac Newton was very much a modern, and without realizing what he was doing, he would pave the way for a great deal of our modern, naturalistic thinking. This was not his intention, however. He was a very devout Christian. This does not mean that his thinking was accurate, he was layman, untrained, and sometimes he felt that he had as much authority in matters of theology as he did in matters of science; so that his interpretation of Revelation sometimes is a little fanciful, and in his doctorate of the person of Christ, he sometimes has opinions which are somewhat Arian or Unitarian. However, he could not be classified as a Unitarian as far as his doctrine of God is concerned, because for him God is truly the God of scripture. It is just that in his doctrine of the trinity he is very weak.

On Louis Pasteur, apart from being apparently a devout Catholic, I really cannot say much. I am not as familiar with his particular religious thinking. Yes?

[Audience Member] What about Charles Darwin?

[Rushdoony] About who?

[Audience Member] Charles Darwin.

[Rushdoony] Darwin? Darwin very early lost his faith, and there is not a trace of Christian thinking in the mature Darwin. Every now and then you read statements that supposedly he regretted what he had done and came to some kind of faith in recent years, but this is not true. He was, moreover, a very neurotic person. He became progressively more and more neurotic as life went on. Today we would say he was really a psychiatric case. The sad fact is, these items about people in the opposition are generally hidden from us, but Darwin was a very sorry figure.

Yes?

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] No, I don’t. However the Methodist church in some respects has been the leader in the whole movement of the social Gospel, the Congregational and the Methodist churches have been in the forefront, however I would say that the other churches are rapidly catching up with them and trying to out-do them. But I don’t know anything about this transaction.

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, I saw that, and I thought his answer was to the point. This Methodist clergyman Dr. Bush from Australia obviously did not accept the Bible as the word of God, and the justification of religion was what it could do to establish human brotherhood everywhere. And brotherhood for him meant also brotherhood with the homosexual and with the criminal, and with all others. And of course there was nothing there but the fact that men are sinners. The whole point is, to save people by brotherhood and love. This is implicit in that position, and the point was well taken that very few homosexuals that are ever changed. There are some psychiatrists that have asserted that none of them are.

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] Yes. Yes?

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, the apostle John who was a cousin of Jesus, wrote the gospel of John, the three epistles of John, and the book of Revelation. And we have of course two other books of the New Testament written by relatives of Jesus. James was a brother and Jude was a brother. But the two brothers, James and John, sons Zebedee, were cousins of our Lord.

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] The whole of the book of Revelation was written on the isle of Patmos.

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] That we do not know. We have no knowledge of the extent of his term there, he did die in Ephesus, that is all we know.

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, the question is, where do these modernist scholars get their evidence that the books of the New Testament were not written by the people who supposedly wrote them, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and so on. The answer is that they do not have any evidence. They are simply determined that these books cannot be eyewitness accounts of the very people at the very time. Therefore they are assumed to be of a later date.

Now, one of the most telling evidences of their fallacy is that they are so generally disagreed. Each of them has his own theory, just as with evolution every scientist says that everybody else is wrong virtually, but he and one or two others had the right idea as to what happened. So here, there is nothing but confusion and changing fads and fashions as to when these were written, what they represent and so on. But by and large their presupposition is that anything that points to a miracle must be legendary. So, they approach the Bible with certain presuppositions. Right now they speak about de-mythologizing the gospel, which means taking out everything that suggests a miracle, everything that suggests that Jesus Christ is very God of very God.

Well, when you do that of course you have nothing left, because the whole of the gospel testifies to that. So they end up in nothing but confusion.

Now, one of the dodges taken by many preachers which is Barthian and neo-Orthodox, is to say they believe in the authority and the inspiration and the infallibility of scripture, they believe in he virgin birth and the resurrection, but this does not mean that these are historical events. There is the Christ of history about whom we know nothing, and the Christ of faith about whom we can affirm all these things.

In this way, you see, they can preach to deceive the people, and they talk about the Christ event. Now what do they mean by the Christ event? And you will find in many of the churches today a great deal of preaching about the centrality of the Christ event. Basically it means that back there, somebody named Jesus about whom we know next to nothing, and about whom a great deal of myth appears in the gospel, discovered that he was God. And the Christ event means that we too, as we become Christians and as we become members of Christ, discover that we too are Gods. We too are Christ’s. This is the basic implication of this position. So it is a thoroughly pagan concept, and of course the whole of modern criticism rests on paganism, and is a pagan attempt to take over Christianity from within.

Yes?

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] A good point. He was speaking to the twelve disciples, that they were going to go out, 11 at the time that he spoke to them, the twelfth was chosen subsequently, and witness to Jerusalem and Judea before their destruction, having His power. They were going to raise the dead, they were going cause the lame to walk, the blind to see, that there was going to be more than He in His one, single person could do, because now twelve of them would be performing these miracles as a witness to the entire country of what they had done before the fall of Jerusalem. So you had that period of miracles from the time of Pentecost, to the fall of Jerusalem, to Israel and Judea. And after that they ceased. Yes?

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, there is no faith in these people, in fact there is a hatred of scripture as such. for example, at one church convention recently within the past month, the ruling body of the church I am told that they dispensed with the regular communion service, and they held the communion service within a gymnasium or public building similar to that, and they had jugs of Gallo wine on the table in front, and large loaves of bread. And they passed the jugs from person to person to take a swig at, and the bread the same way, and before you passed it on to the next person you shook hands with him to indicate brotherhood.

Now of course, this is a mockery of everything that scripture teaches, and its one purpose is to replace the gospel with a new faith, in brotherhood.

Our time is running out, and there are a couple of things I do want to read to you, this from the California Farmer for October 7, 1967. By Murray Norris :Tax Wars in Farming Country. Just a portion of it.

“Farmers in the San Joaquin valley have had taxes up to here, and they are starting to fight instead of talk. With the tax collector getting as much as one hundred percent of the income from some foothill farms, 275 ranchers have joined in a single court suit against county officials they say are confiscating their property.

The case is being handled by Fresno Attorney Richard Andrews who says the taxes are clearly unconstitutional, and Tulare county, where Walter (Capsky?) has parleyed his tax payers association into 800 members in about 2 years. They have been trying to get the supervisors to cut the spending. After two budgets (Capsky?) has not only failed to get anything cut from the budget, but they have been bigger both years. (Capsky?) says he is now seeking a luncheon with Andrews to discuss possible future moves.

In (?) county, Kenneth (Vaddel?) of (Glasgow?) says that the tax assessor has upped the value of all his ranch land while leaving his city property at a ridiculously low figure. He also feels that there is no reason why the tax assessor should place a valuation on an almond huller that is exactly twice what it cost to build the plant only two years ago. Dave (Dunshee?) of Fresno rural appraisers says he knows of some foothill ranches where the land rents for $3-4, and the taxes are $5-6. Under the present system of assessments, (Gard?) admitted that a new piece of farming equipment, a harvester for instance, would be assessed higher in the hands of a farmer than in the hands of the dealer who sold it to him. (Gard?) explained it this way: “The dealer is assessed the value of the machine at his cost, while the farmer is assessed at the resale value of the equipment.” Thus the assessor said, “The assessment for the farmer would quite likely be higher than for the dealer during the first year, and possibly even the second year.”

In another direction, some farmers are backing a movement to abolish all property taxes. A Los Angeles based group called United Organization has an initiative petition seeking to change the change in the state constitution. The papers are now before the State Attorney General and Harry Crown, (Yule?) vice president said he hoped to get the matter on the ballot by 1968. Crown said that Watson, the assessor here, has already wiped out farmers in the Los (Virgines?) county with high assessments. He gave one example where a ranch capable of carrying 40 head of cattle had an annual tax of $18,000.

Another landlocked piece of grain land had the same assessed valuation as the adjacent high-bracket subdivision. One of the united groups, the Greater Los Angeles Tax Payers Association, insists that property taxes are responsible for the foreclosure of three thousand homes in Los Angeles County every month.

Howard Jarvis, another vice President of (UO?) said that members of his organization did not want to avoid paying their fair share of taxes, but 39% of the people were paying 80%.”

Then to continue, this one interesting item: “Meanwhile back in Fresno country the assessor put a higher value on some rolling un-irrigated cattle land than on adjacent level land that was growing irrigated sugar beets. The owner, Mark Morris, asked his attorney to sue, and started talking grimly about recall. The tax men then promptly raised the assessment on Morris’s house in town from $1250 to $3000. Morris then began his recall movement in earnest.”

I think it is important for us to know of this organization and its work. Then, from the national review bulletin, an article by M. Stanton Evans:

“Slowly but surely the word is getting around that the liberal approach to problems of big city living hasn’t worked. And interestingly enough, the realization seems to be more widespread among the liberals themselves than it is among the work-a-day politicians.

Take for example the matter of public housing. It is getting difficult these days to pick up a social science journal without coming across some new evidence assembled by Liberal professors that public housing has proved to be a failure. The evidence shows that in New York, Washington, Chicago, Cleveland, Saint Louis, etc, these projects have been unqualified disasters. The cultural lag in our society is obviously enormous. If you turn from the social science magazines to the daily press, you will find politicians urgently demanding that we get on with the same sort of projects which up in the van garde have been tried and found wanting. It takes a while for the Liberal Politicians to catch up with the Liberal intellectuals, although even here there are faint signs the message is seeping through.

Exhibit A in the demonstration of public housings failure is the gigantic Pruitt Igoe development in Saint Louis, acclaimed at its inception as a major breakthrough in the field of social justice. Now the results are in, and a developed Pruitt Igoe is rather unseemly, and even dangerous place to live. According to Liberal sociologist Lee Rainwater writing in the public interest, Pruitt Igoe is in fact an embarrassment to all concerned. Rainwaters conclusion is similar to that reached by other students of Pruitt Igoe, including Jane Jacobs, the Wallstreet Journal and reporters for the Saint Louis Globe Democrat.

What makes this verdict particularly interesting is that he backs it up by citing the comments of Pruitt Igoe residents themselves about their Federal accommodations. Concerning living conditions at Pruitt Igoe the respondents say among other things: “There are mice and cockroaches in the buildings. People use the elevators and halls to go to the bathroom. Bottles and other dangerous things get thrown out of windows and hurt people. People who don’t live in the project come in and make a lot of trouble, with fights, stealing, drinking and the like. The laundry rooms aren’t safe, clothes get stolen and people get attacked. People use the stairwells and laundry wells for drinking. A woman isn’t safe in the hall, stairways, or elevators.

Pruitt Igoe residents were asked to specify the kinds of behavior in the project which they felt to be most serious. Rainwater reports the following were characterized as very frequent by more than half of the respondents: Holding up somebody and robbing them. Being a wino or alcoholic. Stealing from somebody. Teenagers yelling curse words at adults. Breaking windows. Drinking a lot and fooling around in the streets. Teenagers getting in fights. All of which confirms the findings of journalists who surveyed Pruitt Igoe. It is a mess, no two ways about it. And all of which is also characteristic of public housing in various parts of the nation.

The trouble at Pruitt Igoe is not as some defenders of public housing would have us believe, an exception. It is all to obviously the rule, as becomes apparent if we inventory results obtained by other investigators of such projects.”

More is cited about other such projects from various cities. However, I think when all of this is said and done we have got to realize this: such reports are not new. I can remember back as early as 1952 reading similar reports about the first of the housing projects. And they haven’t learned and they are not going to learn because with them this is a religion. They believe they are going to save men by spending money, by changing their environment. And they will continue to spend money, and persist in this effort until their religion gets knocked in the head, until they have another faith. This is the only thing that will change them. Every project has ended up the same way, and they will not learn.

Well, our time is up and we stand adjourned.