Revelation

The Kingdom Militant

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Prerequisite/Law

Lesson: 16-30

Genre: Talk

Track: 184

Dictation Name: RR129H16

Location/Venue:

Year: 1960’s-1970’s

…And God the Holy Ghost for all thy blessings and Thy providential care, for Thy so great salvation and for the glory that is to be revealed unto us through Jesus Christ Thy son, our savior. We rejoice our Father in Thy manifold blessings, and Thy prospering hand. And so with grateful hearts we come to praise Thee, to rejoice in Thy word, to give thanks unto Thee, to acknowledge that Thou art indeed king of creation, and submit ourselves afresh to Thy will and to Thy calling. Speak to us this day the word that we need, and prosper us in thy service. In Jesus name, amen.

Our scripture is the 11th chapter of Revelation. The Kingdom Militant. Revelation 11, the Kingdom Militant.

“11 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.

2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

4 These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

5 And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.

6 These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.

7 And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

9 And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.

10 And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.

11 And after three days and an half the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.

12 And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.

13 And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.

14 The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly.

15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

16 And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,

17 Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.

18 And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

19 And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.”

If you were suddenly transported into a completely sealed building, in total darkness, you would of course be unable to see your way around and would quickly stumble and fall. But if someone were to place in your hand a lighted candle, you would very easily then, and quickly, find your way around.

The future is like that sealed and totally dark building. We cannot see a moment or a step ahead, we are in total darkness. But scripture is that lighted candle which God places in our hands to enable us to penetrate that darkness. And the book of Revelation in particular gives us the Revelation, chapters 4-11, and the first half of the book of Revelation. It gives us a summary picture of the kingdom throughout the whole Christian era. First of all in the first two verses we see the security of the true believer. The temple is measured.

“Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. 2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.”

The measuring is significant, because measuring is delineating, it is marking off, it is setting apart; so that to measure is in a very real sense to fence and to separate. When you measure a yard of goods, you are thereby separating that from the rest of the cloth. When you measure an acre you are separating that acre from all the surrounding ground. So that when God summons the apostle to measure the temple of God, it is its fencing, its separating, its protecting.

The measuring is of three things. First the temple itself is measured, that is the true body of Christ, the true church of Christ. It is measured and separated from the false church, the court of the Gentiles; signifying those who are outwardly of Christ, but not truly of Him is not measured and it is specifically cited as being left to be trodden under foot, to be destroyed.

The second thing that is measured or separated, fenced off, is the altar of incense. The altar of incense signified intercessory prayer, and it indicates the importance and significance in the sight of God and the providence of God of intercessory prayer. And a part of the security of the true church involves intercession.

The third thing that is measured is the worshippers themselves, so that collectively as the church the true church, we are measured. Second, prayer, intercessory prayer is measured and set apart to indicate its importance in our security. And third, we ourselves are specifically separated and measured. This means of course that we cannot limit the measure and extent of our obedience and service, God Himself establishes the measure thereof. It is not for us to lay down the laws of our service, God establishes them through the scripture. God establishes the norm whereby we are to care for his work, the tithe. God gives us the commandments. He measures out the boundaries of our lives and of our service.

Thus the church is fenced off, measured, separated. Then we are told that there are two great witnesses. They are also called candlesticks. These are readily identifiable, because the sixth verse virtually tells us the source of the type here. “These have power to shut heaven that it rain not in the days of their prophecy.” This is clearly Elijah. “And have power over waters to turn them to blood and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they will.” This clearly harks back to Moses.

Now Moses and Elijah represented the law and the prophets. They also signified Gods ministry of justice which is centrally the state, and God’s ministry of the word and of grace which is centrally the church. So that here you have typified Godly church and state, and to these is given power, so that they are to govern and they have power of death over those who transgress. The world is placed then under the ministry of Grace and the ministry of Justice.

But after a time the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit wages war against them, and overcomes them and kills them. So that as it were, the ministry of Justice and the ministry of Grace become dead bodies, lying in the streets of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified.

The last clause: “Where our Lord was crucified” refers of course to the Jerusalem and Judea of the day. So that clearly we are told that the Jews are not the people of God. They are now of Babylon, they belong to the enemy because they have crucified Christ, they are cut off from the covenant, cut off from the people of God.

Then Egypt, the first great empire of the ancient world is also cited. Egypt with its dream of governing man and creating a perfect unchanging order without God; and Sodom, dedicated to perversion and the total defiance of God. These things sum up the new world, a Christ hating, law hating, dream of empire, of one world. It triumphs for a time. But the period is short. The original period of the sway of the two witnesses is called 42 months or a thousand, two hundred and three score days, which is 42 months; that is, half of seven.

Now, the period of the outward death, the seeming death of the ministry of justice, and the ministry of grace, a true church and a true state is three and a half days, according to verse 11. Again, it is half the number of seven, half the number of fullness. But although both are in a sense the same number, the one is great and the other small, indicating this period of the triumph of Babylon the Great is brief.

And then, after three and a half days the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon them which saw them. So that God strikes the ungodly world with great earthquake, a great shaking; so that the powers that be are shaken, so that the things which alone are unshakable might remain. And the seventh trumpet is sounded. And this is a proclamation of the end, and yet at the same time a revelation of the beginning. It shows us the fulfillment of the kingdom of Christ, and yet also it reveals Christ as He who has ruled in power from the beginning. It is a Revelation therefore of the first coming of Christ, because it reveals Him to have been the king from the day of His resurrection. But it is also an opening of the end in that it reveals the final glory, the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. And His kingship is openly revealed and its fullness will be manifested at the second coming.

When Christ was crucified the veil of the temple was rent in twain, because now the old temple was finished, and a new temple, the body of Christ was revealed. In Revelation 11:19 we are now shown the temple of God in heaven. The stronghold and refuge of the saints is now revealed and their name made manifest as storm and judgement overwhelm the ungodly world. So even as at the day of the judgement of the old temple the veil was rent in twain, now in a sense we see in Revelation the veil parted, and the final glory revealed, and the stronghold and refuge of the saints is manifested, the ark of the covenant is seen containing the tables of the law and the rod of Aaron, and the manna.

These are the sources of the saints courage, for they are fed by the true temple, the body of Christ. When the law was given at Sinai, voices, thundering’s, earthquake and storm surrounded the mountain; signifying that all those who transgressed the law of God would be destroyed. And now this destruction is unleashed upon the world of Sodom, of Egypt, of old Jerusalem, of Babylon the great, because they have defied and despised the law of God.

And so the end is seen as a revelation of the beginning, and its unveiling and fulfilling. History therefore is surveyed from the first to the second coming in this chapter, and it gives us first the measuring of the church. That measuring of the church is going on every day. Age after age Christ measures the church and sets it apart, reserves it unto himself, and gives the false church finally over to destruction.

Second, the true church witnesses mightily against the ungodliness of the world, against the political orders, against the powers and principalities of darkness. Third this false order makes war on the true witnesses and destroys true law and order and the true ministry of the word, the two witnesses, the ministry of justice and the ministry of grace are suppressed, are in effect killed so that they can congratulate themselves on their victory over Gods kingdom.

Fourth, the witnesses shall stand again in power, and judgement shall overwhelm the wicked as the Godly triumph and ascend into their power over the kingdoms of this world. And fifth, there is a world wide kingdom, the saints govern the earth, and the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and His truth and His word prevail across the face of the earth.

This chapter then is a candle. A candle to lighten the darkness for us. To indicate to us that Christ has called us not to defeat, not to shame or bewilderment, but He has called us to victory, and He summons us to have the confidence and the boldness of men who are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God, we give Thee thanks for Thy gracious work. We thank Thee that the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, that even now He rules and ordains and orders all things, and that none can stay His hand. And so our Father we worship Thee. We acknowledge that indeed Thou art God. We praise Thee that Thou hast separated us, measured us, set us apart unto Thyself. Make us ever mindful of thy mercy, and fill our hearts with gratitude, that we may render Thee that praise and service which is Thy due. In Jesus name, amen.

Are there any questions now? Yes.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Well, I don’t know the incident to which you refer, but the test of the word of God is the word of God itself. In other words, Scripture is consistent with Scripture, and Scripture interprets Scripture. So that, as we go through the Bible, we find each strand carried through, amplified, developed. So that Scripture develops, explains, expands the one Word of all Scripture.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] It is God’s word to us. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes. This is of course the government is upon His shoulders, one of the great Christmas texts from Isaiah the 9th chapter. I think it is worth taking a moment or two to look at that passage which is one of the most beautiful in the Bible. Isaiah 9:6-7.

“ For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:” (This is Isaiah 8 centuries before Christ, looking ahead and speaking of the birth of our Lord.) “and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor,” (There shouldn’t be a comma there between wonderful and counselor.) “Wonderful Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

“7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end,” in other words, Jesus Christ is the great second person of the Trinity, very God of very God; and therefore as God the whole government of the universe is upon His shoulders. In other words, it is not on our shoulders. So there is no point in us fretting, and it is sinful when man tries to take over the government of things as humanists do. And this should be a very comforting text because so often when we have grief’s and problems, we must commit them to Christ, knowing that the government is upon His shoulders. Moreover we are told that of the increase of His government there shall be no end. It is a total government, and yet its growth is also total. So that as the ages roll, the magnificence and the splendor and the perfection of His government will only be magnified.

Does that help explain it?

Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, very definitely, he echoed this and other like passages. All power, all authority, Christ declared, “Has been given unto me” in heaven and in earth. Total power. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, government here is used in the total sense. It means government over every social order. So that...

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, it includes government over every social order, every political order through His law and through His sovereign power. Government over the church, government over the family, government over us individually, over schools, over nature, over the entire universe in its every aspect, over heaven and the angelic hosts. It is total government.

Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] A good question. What are we to do when the government is upon His shoulders? Now, as Christians God gives us duties. But since the government is upon His shoulders He doesn’t ask us to worry about the results. Thus, we have an obligation to do what God requires of us, to make our stand, to make our witness, to do that which is honest in our calling, to fulfill the requirement of His word.

Now, too often when we do something we want to know: “Is it going to add up to something?” In other words, “What is the point in being honest unless it is going to add up to something for me?” We want to be able to predict and control both the responsibility and the conclusion. But because the government is upon His shoulders, the duties are our obligation. The results are in the hands of God. Therefore we do what we must in the political order, in the educational order, in the family order, in the church, everywhere. But the results are in God’s hands. We cannot say: “Well, there is no point in doing this,” or, “There is no sense in being honest in this day and age.” We have no right to project ourselves into a position of God and say: “These things are futile, therefore we will not do them.”

Now this does not ask us to be foolish, in other words we are not called to tilt at windmills, to be ridiculous. We are called to be as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves. To be wise, discerning, but always Godly.

Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] You have to reconstruct. You have a responsibility, and then you leave it into the hands of God as to what that which you begin to construct will be. You lay the foundations in terms of God. There are those who say: “What is the use, it is too late,” And so on. We haven’t the right to say that. We have the obligation to reconstruct where we can reconstruct. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] What? I couldn’t hear that.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Well, of course there is very little in politics today that is not socialistic, I would say perhaps he is less so than most. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Well, I would rather not get into a discussion of persons here, I don’t think it is the place for it, but…

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] I don’t want to get into political issues now, and I would say basically I am very favorable to the man, but there isn’t a party today or a political figure on the horizon that has a sound view of money, for example. Or a sound view of education, and a number of other things. In a situation such as this what you do is to take the least of the necessary evils, you have no other choice. And you hope little by little you can move the political machinery in the right direction. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, we are not all called to work in the same area, and some may feel that they must dedicate themselves to reconstruction in the political sphere. And there is nothing wrong with the person who feels that they are not interested in working here, because their calling may be in education, or it may be within the church, or it may be some kind of ministry to people at large, which is educational. It can be a variety of things, or it can be to meet our responsibilities in our particular family situation. We, each of us, have our calling. No one has the right to expect everyone to be equally interested in what they are interested in.

Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Well, like many another man, his position was a very inconsistent one, and often politically expedient. His anti-communism has not been as prominent in recent years as it was some years ago. And basically there was not too much of a philosophical position there, or a theological one. Basically he was an administrator. An able, efficient, hard-working administrator, who promoted the work of his diocese very, very efficiently and ably. And this is true of most of your churchmen today, they get ahead because, and this is in most churches, of their ability to be administrators. And sometimes to be effective speakers. Never today because they are able theologians, able expositors of the word of God.

One of the saddest episodes in this direction was in the Middle Ages as things were becoming more and more corrupt, and the church as a whole began to feel the need for a Godly man. And so they found this simple monk who had a great and deserved reputation for simple, Godly faith, and they elected him pope and virtually had to drag him to the Vatican to make him take office. And the poor man immediately found himself lost there. Why? Well, the reason was a very simple one. The church had become such a vast machinery, a political instrument, that what point was there in having a man who was first and last a Christian? And so he very quickly realized that he had no place there. He was not a politician, he was not administrator, and they did not want his kind of man, they didn’t need it. And so he resigned. But they were so afraid of him because this was what everybody was hungry for, that they locked him up promptly when he resigned so that he wouldn’t be able to lead some kind of movement against the church, and he died of neglect in a few months, in prison.

[Audience Member] Is there a purpose in praying for someone who you know is not a Christian, but whom you wish could be brought to Christ?

[Rushdoony] Very definitely. Yes. However, we are told in the scripture that there are some who we should not pray for. When their behavior is such that they have made their way of life a total subversion of all that is Godly, and they have made evil their good, for such a one we are not to pray. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] There are two or three scriptures, but I believe one such scripture is in the epistles of John… no excuse me, this is not to receive such a one in your house. But if you will check in a concordance you will find if you look up ‘pray’ for such a one not even to pray. I will try to remember to give you that next week. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] By their fruits shall ye know them. And to pray for example for a Stalin is to abuse prayer. But to pray for someone who has fallen into sin, or strayed, but has not systematically dedicated themselves to evil, or a Lenin would be a better example than Stalin, because I believe that Lenin was even more diabolical. But such men have made evil systematically and deliberately their good.

We have just a few minutes, and I thought I would share with you a couple of things that I think are rather delightful, we have been a little on the heavy side in our questions and answers of late, but this I have always enjoyed off and on over the years, because I have been on both the receiving and the bestowing end. Dogs are sometimes a problem when you go visiting. They are all ready to love you when you are not ready to be loved. And we have such a dog now, and I have encountered all too man such dogs. This is a little thing written by Dick Emmons entitled: They are Barking Up the Wrong Man.

“For reasons I don’t even want to think about, I am loved by dogs. And the unvarnished truth of the matter is that our love affair is one-sided. Unfortunately, the bigger the dog, the more he seems to think I will enjoy his companionship. He is wrong of course, but have you ever tried to tell a Saint Bernard sitting on your lap that he is making a fool of himself? I try to be both fair and firm about the thing, I nudge him a little in the flank hoping he will take the hint. He thereupon throws his arms around my neck and kisses me mercilessly.

Although I can no longer see him, I can hear his master slapping his knee in hearty laughter across the room. “Brutus likes you,” He says in translation. “I like Brutus,” I reply gamely, “But don’t you think he would be happier outdoors?” “Scratch him behind the ears, it will calm him.” Brutus settles down at once, like a sperm whale across my knee. I couldn’t get up if my honor depended on it. Once in a while I attempt to shift the position of his head, so he can drool on a dry area. Whenever I stop scratching, Brutus warns me by opening one bloodshot eye. Later, my host lures the dog away with a side of rare beef, and I move numbly toward the door.

Brutus, not wishing to seem impolite, bounds from the kitchen and throws his heart into one final embrace. “I can’t get over the way that dog goes for you,” my friend says, shaking his head and reaching his hand down to help me. “He is very friendly,” I admit, groping for my glasses. “Someday we will have to take a long romp together, out near Precipice Ledge perhaps.”

And then this one, which I think is very choice, because I am one of these people, when there is something brought home by my wife which is a knock down kit and has to be assembled, my life is sheer frustration for a while. And this one, written by (H.A.F Ellis?), is entitled A Letter to a Manufacturer X.

“Sir. I have just been carefully following your directions. After a half an hours preliminary work, I pushed the spindle R, through the aperture BV1. Then I pulled the arm L down sharply downward, page 2, and retaining my hold on R, worked BV gently past E, W, and Q, until it clicked into position at X. Keeping L depressed as instructed, I now attempted by means of the knurled knob T at the side, to raise the pinion at O until it engaged the horizontal worm F. But there is no knurled knob beside. Did you know that? There is a knob, fairly well knurled, at the back. But how can that be T? You can’t reach it for one thing, while still depressing L, unless you let go of the spindle R. And you know very well, assuming you have ever tried to assemble this thing yourself what happens then. On the off chance that I had all along been mistaking the back for the side, I unclipped the two brackets U, U1, and U2 from what in that case would be no longer the bottom, and fixed them on the old top, or front rather. This of course necessitated reversing the slotted panel HH, page one, and while I was doing that, BV slipped out a bit, and a small white part rattled down. As far as I could tell by shining a torch through the floor boards, it is either G or B.

At this stage, I turned to page three, and at once became convinced that diagram 9 is upside down. It is impossible to secure w to K, since the so-called J6 would obviously be in the way if it had not already through my following page 1 too carefully, been wrenched clear out of its socket. Putting J6 back the other way round, so that the bent bit is on top simply forces the small spring, would it M or N, out of the slot YY, and there is a clang from inside that bodes in my limited experience of this kind of mechanism no good.

I had every right in my opinion to find out whether, by putting a foot on L, and gripping R with my teeth, and at the same time giving a slight twist to this knurled knob of yours, I could induce the spring to return to its original position. No one could have possibly foreseen that this would cause the whole base plate, now of course on top, to buckle upward and spew a number of brass screws into the fireplace. Nor was this all; even the worm F turns. And as the pinion, all one can say for certain is that it was no longer at O. When this happened I took a cold chisel, CC, not included in the outfit, set it about the point P, and drove it through the aperture from A to Z, maintaining a firm, even pressure throughout, page four. Then I carefully tossed your directions out of a fourth floor window. May I suggest that it is now your turn to follow them?”

With that, I think we can adjourn.