Revelation

Anti-Christianity in Church and State

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Prerequisite/Law

Lesson: 18-30

Genre: Talk

Track: 186

Dictation Name: RR129J18

Location/Venue:

Year: 1960’s-1970’s

Almighty God our Heavenly Father, we give thanks unto Thee for the blessings of the year past. Indeed oh Lord Thy hand has been upon us for good. And we thank Thee that Thou hast protected us from evil and ungodly men. Thou hast protected us and our loved and our possessions, and Thou hast surrounded us with Thy mercies. Our God we thank Thee. And in confidence our Father we look unto Thee in the year ahead, knowing the greatness of Thy grace and Thy mercies, and the certainty of Thy providence. We thank Thee that Thou wilt never leave us nor forsake us; so that we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper, I shall not fear what man may do unto me.” Give us ever grateful hearts, that we might render unto Thee Thy due praise, thanksgiving and adoration. In Jesus name, amen.

Our scripture is Revelation 13. Revelation 13, Anti-Christianity in Church and State.

“13 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.

10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.

12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,

14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.”

The book of Revelation is essentially a simple book. A great deal of the problem in understanding it comes from the fact that we have in our modern age outgrown so many of the symbols and types that were once common among men; and also because for so long a time, fantastic interpretations have so extensively predominated in the church that it is difficult to approach the scriptures with an unprejudiced mind.

Revelation 13 in particular has been the subject of all kinds of speculation. But it is essentially a very simple chapter. It tells us about two beasts. These beasts are obviously symbolic, that is they stand for something. The one beast, the first, arises out of the sea and it rules; and it governs men. It persecutes the saints. This is very obviously anti-Christian civil government. It is the anti Christian state wherever you find it. The second beast is concerned with worship, and its goal is the worship of the first beast, of the state; and it is even as obviously anti Christian religion, anti Christian churches. So that, Revelation 13 simply gives us the program as it were, the goal, the purpose of anti Christianity in state and church.

Saint John describes the beast rising up out of the sea as having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his head the name of blasphemy.

Now as we have seen, the numbers seven and ten in terms of ancient numerical reckoning, were numbers of fullness, in that the numerical systems at a very early period in history were based upon the number seven, numbering 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and then 1+7 to double 7. Now it’s through 10 and then double 10, so that 10 is now the number of fullness. Previously it was 7. Both 7 and 10 are used in the Bible numerically, in their significance as numbers of fullness, of totality.

This beast therefore sums up in itself all anti Christian civil governments. The second verse makes this even more clear when the beast is compared to a leopard, a bear, a lion, and the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority.

The images of Daniel are in other words, summed up in this beast. That is, all the great empires of antiquity and their anti Christian pretensions, their attempts to create a paradise on earth in contempt of God, are summed up in the beast which also sums up in itself all anti Christian governments to the end of time. This then represents anti Christianity in the state in every age in history.

It is not his heads but his horns that are crowned we are told, which is again significant. It makes it clear that his power is the source of his legitimacy, in other words, that for him might makes right. It is might, it is power, for the horn represents power that is worshipped and obeyed. And the names of blasphemy indicate that human governments arrogate to themselves the authority and the sovereignty which properly belongs to God. And this is not only true when they are dictators or monarchs, but when they are democracies. In fact, the fundamental creed of democracy is expressed in the Roman phrase: “Vox Populi Vox Dei” The voice of the people is the voice of God. Which means that the majorities are God, which means that when the majority speaks the majority is God and none can defy it.

This of course is in essence the thesis of Marxism, the dictatorship of the proletariat is the expression of the unconscious will, of the majority. This its thesis, and therefore it is God incarnate, as it were.

This beast represents therefore the empires of antiquity, and in totality all the civil opposition to God in every anti Christian state. This beast is the dragons messiah. It stands for the secular world culture generally. The Dragon we are told commits his power and his seat in great authority, to the beast. That is, he makes the world culture his messiah, and the world state is dedicated to bringing about the rule of Satan in the affairs of men. And we are told that men worship the dragon which gave power unto the beast. And they worshipped the beast saying: “Who is like unto the beast, who is able to make war with him?”

Unbelieving men, in other words, move in terms of Satan’s principle: “Every man his own God.” Every man determining for himself what is good and evil, and the state as the expression of mans divinity. Gods power must be denied by asserting the power of man in the state.

Perhaps this was never more nakedly and baldly stated then by Marcel Duchamp, the great French artist who was the founder of modernism in art. His famous Nude Descending a Staircase was the sensation of the Armory show in New York in 1913, and brought the whole of the modernist movement into the United States.

Now, Duchamp’s entire work, his entire speaking has been anti God, anti Christian to the core. And for Duchamp, human liberty requires a totalitarian state, because only as man takes total control in every area can he overthrow Gods government of man in the universe. And so the epitome of hope for the future, the goal for man and society for Duchamp was, to reach a stage in history when the very air which man breathes could be metered, he said, so that anyone who stood against the world state would be asphyxiated, his air would be shut off. Then, this was the implication, man would no longer be dependent upon God, he would be totally freed from God and made dependent on man and the state.

This for him was liberty. And this is what Revelation means when they worship the dragon and they worship the beast, and they say: “Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” They hold to the limitless possibilities of human culture, and to the sovereignty of mans rule. They are humanists.

But we are told power is given by God to the beast to speak great things and blasphemies. And power is given to him moreover verses 6-7 makes clear, to overcome the saints, and to have power over all kindred’s and tongues and nations, and power also to assault God by blasphemy and insult. But Saint John tells us in verses 8-10, the reality of the situation is above and beyond this assault, this persecution and this outward overcoming of the saints. Those who have not been saved by the lamb slain from the foundation of the world worship the beast, and they seek salvation in and through the state, and they make the very source of their damnation their hope of salvation. But to the suffering church comes this word:

“If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.”

God’s sovereign government is written into the fiber of the universe. Everything witnesses to God, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Everything is within His total government, and moves to His purpose, so that as Deborah could say in her beautiful song, as she surveyed the tyrant Sisera: “The very stars in their courses fought against Sisera.” The stars in their courses fought against Sisera. He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. The absolute and final court of the Almighty also shall render a full and just account, a judgement, to the pretension of humanism, to the dealings of sinful men, and to the apostate states and peoples. They cannot escape. They shall pay to the last penny.

The next section, verses 11-18 gives us the second section. The first having described the anti Christian state, the second the anti Christian church and its purpose. This beast which comes out of the earth according to verse 11, looks like a lamb but speaks as a dragon. In other words, resembles a Christian church, but it speaks like Satan. And he exercises all the power of the first beast before him. He moves in terms of the state and of Satan, and he causeth the earth and them that dwell within to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed.

The purpose of the second beast of Anti Christian religion is to bring men to a worship of the first beast, the anti Christian state. Earlier we are told that this first beast was wounded unto death, but continued for a time to live; so that men wondered at the beast. This wounding unto death has reference to the coming of Christ and his atoning work, whereby he overthrew the power of Satan. But the battle is not yet over, and the enemy still seems to live, but it has been wounded with a deadly wound.

The anti Christian church does great wonders, and seems to make fire come down from heaven upon the earth in the sight of men; in other words, like Elijah of old, it appears to be able to bring judgement. But the judgement it brings is not the supernatural judgement of God, but the very natural and wicked judgement of the anti Christian state and its persecution of believers.

“And he deceiveth people that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast;” That is, with the power the false church gains from the false state. “Saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast,” They are, in other words, to worship in essence the state as their savior, the state as the source of their salvation, their welfare, it preaches in short, a social gospel. It preaches social salvation.

“And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” It is the apostate church that gives life and vitality to the apostate state, so that apostasy and civil government draws its life, it draws its power, its ability to survive from apostasy in the church, and “he causeth all both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their forheads, and that no man might buy or sell save he that hath the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name.”

The goal therefore of the anti Christian State and the Anti Christian Church is the control of man by man. So that no man should have the freedom in economics or in any sphere, apart from the controls of this anti Christian order. Man is to be circumscribed, to be controlled, as Duchamp dreamed, to the ultimate; even to the air he breathes, this is to be metered. This then is the goal, to supplant the predestination of God with the predestination of the world state.

“Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast, because it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred three score and six.” At this point there has been a great deal of foolishness written and spoken by many, many men. I checked yesterday in one modernist commentary, and they said that 666 was the numerical equivalent of Nero’s name, Nero. But the only way they could make 666 become the numerical equivalent of Nero was to add Caesar to Nero, to make it read Nero Caesar, and then it didn’t come to 666, they had to misspell it. So this is fanciful nonsense, trying to reduce the scripture to nonsense.

I picked up another book written by a very very prominent preacher of the 20’s and 30’s, the book was written in 1927 and by August had passed through seven printings. And in this case, it was stated that 666 was Mussolini. After all, he was going to reestablish the Roman Empire and a world empire that was to represent this beast. A little later we heard that it was Stalin and Hitler, and I know that various of you passed on to me some very foolish statements made this summer by various clergymen when Nasser invaded Israel. Some of them are well meaning and Godly people, and it is a pity they make such statements.

But actually the matter is very simple. Numbers commonly had a symbolic meaning in antiquity, in fact numerical symbols were so commonly used, and the numerical equivalence of names very often so commonly used that in the days of Saint John, instead of boys writing on the wall ‘John Loves Jane’ they very often wrote “234 loves 322” or such numerical equivalents, this was to make it a little more difficult to find out who it was you were supposed to love, you knew your own names numerical equivalent.

But the number seven as we have pointed out, represented totality, and it was very commonly used as the number of God, the number of fullness. The number 6 was commonly used for man. Man was created on the sixth day, the number 6 represented man. And so the number 6 represented man, 66 represented man, and 666 represented man. And the significance is very clearly this: Intensify 6 to 66 or 666, or add all the 6’s you want, and it will never reach seven. Man no matter how much humanism magnifies him and exalts him remains always a creature. He can never be God. And it is plainly stated for us, it is the number for a man or of man; or, this can be equally well translated, it is the human number.

It represents man. This then is the meaning of 666. It tells us that humanism as it enthrones itself in church and state will work to overthrow Christ and His church, Christ and His people, Christ and Christian civil government, that its hand is raised against everything that is Godly. But if any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity, he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

Our Lord declared: “In the world ye shall have much tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

Let us pray. Our Lord and our God we give thanks unto Thee that Thou art God. That the government is on Thy shoulders, and Thou art He who shall lead the enemy into captivity, and who shall put them to the sword. We thank Thee our God that we have the blessed assurance that we are Thy people, and Thou wilt never leave us nor forsake us. And so our God in this we stand, and in this confidence and faith we move forward, knowing that Thou dost go before us, Thou dost beset us before and behind with Thy mercies. We thank Thee that we can face the New Year confident in Thy protecting care and Thy blessing. Surround us day by day our Father that Thy Holy Spirit fill us with confidence, and make us bold in Thee, unto the end that the kingdoms of this world might become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. In Jesus name, amen.

Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, partly that, and partly in that it was covered over, but it was still a deadly wound. It is identified both times as a deadly wound, but apparently healed over. The end, you are right, as time goes on it seems to appear that the world has overcome the effect of His coming, but this is an illusion on the part of the world. Christ is still on the throne.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] No, in Daniel of course the various beasts have to be read as different empires, but they are all put into one here, and the meaning is this will all culminate into one powerful force, which is later called in Revelation the Whore of Babylon.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] No, the dragon is clearly Satan, because it is identified for us as Satan in Revelation. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] They, yes they are interchangeable, but also describe his nature. He was called the deceiver, he is compared to a dragon, he is compared to a serpent, to indicate the insidiousness and the viciousness of his work. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] The sea is the world we are told earlier in Revelation, and the states rise up out of the world. The church in a sense is compared to rising up out of the earth to differentiate it, because it comes out of something solid, it is a false church but it appears on the scene out of something solid, out of the true church. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, the deadly wound was of course the coming of our Lord and His death and resurrection, it destroyed the work of Satan. And yet, outwardly, Satan’s work still seems to continue, and the deadly wound is there and in time Christ and His work will totally destroy Satan. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] No, no. This is symbolic, it is not literal. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] You see, we have various forms of the mark of the beast already, in that you have to have a Social Security number, and everything is controlled increasingly by the state, these are all forms of control. It doesn’t refer to any one of them, it circumscribes everything whereby the social order tries to say: “We are going to predestine, we are going to control man from start to finish.” Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Oh, how can you reduce names to numbers. You do it by going through the alphabet and giving each letter a numerical equivalent. For example you take the vowels and give them numbers, and the consonants and so on, so that A can be 1, and B, 2, and so on. Then when you read a name you can just say for the name A number 1, and if it is Ann, N may be number 22, you have 122.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, but it is fairly simple, Cryptologists have no trouble with this sort of thing, it is about the simplest type of coding that has existed, and it was once very common, very popular in antiquity; so that there were in some cases commonly established numerical equivalents that were very popularly used.

Just as for example, this is a very crude illustration, but I referred to the fact that children used to use it to mark I love you and so on, on the walls; pig latin was very common once. It was a way of having a very elementary code. Well, the numerical was a little more sophisticated, but it was quite popular and common.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes. In this case there was attempt to disguise it, it was just a popular sort of thing. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Modern Numerology is nonsense. Because it doesn’t just use numbers as just symbols, but it attempts to say that there are mystical eternal meanings in numbers. And this is altogether wrong, it is a form of divination. It takes the accidental facts of numbers and tries to read a deep inner meaning.

Now, the people who are perhaps the best numerologists, that is the most faithful, are some betters on horses, because if for example they are going to go to the race track and somebody tells them, “Well, are you coming over to my birthday tomorrow, it is on such and such a date” that number immediately has a mystical significance, and they will bet in terms of that number. And of course they don’t believe if they lose their bet that it has anything to do with the fact that they used that number. They say: “Oh, I forgot to add such and such numbers of this and that that happened to me today, then it would have come out.” In other words, life moves in terms of numerical significances. This is different. It is one thing to see them as symbols, another thing to say that the world is governed by these mystical forces. Does that help make it clear?

Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] I would say the laws of averages would cover it…

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Because there are enough people who gamble regularly, and gambling is pure chance, so very often through pure chance the most fantastic winners come up. So I would say it is the laws of averages, just happening to hit at that time. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes. The Pythagoreans did indulge in all kinds of mystical speculations on numbers, but this was not the popular kind of thing I am referring to. They did emphasize the 1 because to put it in very simple terminology, the basic drift of their thinking was totalitarian. There was no differentiation of significance, in other words the many in reality, individuality, was ephemeral and unity, oneness, was alone real. And hence for the Pythagoreans the importance of the number one.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Right. Right, because the many has no meaning, it is ephemeral, it must be summed up in on.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] In modern times, yes. Yes, the geometry they worked on was one thing, this other aspect was an entirely different tangent to their thinking. So that in a sense they became number mad and wanted to reduce the entire world of reality to numbers and to mathematics.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, yes. And I want to read a little something in a moment about that. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] No, none whatsoever. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] There is an order and a meaning in every little thing in the universe, but the meaning is in God, not in and of itself. And it is true that numerologists get some amazing things out of names and casual things. But, this is because they are remarkably clever men with figures and numbers. Shakespeare is the best example of this. Numerologists have gone through Shakespeare and they have proved just about everything they have wanted to prove, and when you read them as an outsider they have proved that it was written by Bacon, they have proved that it was written by other peoples, they have gone through and supposedly broken all kinds of codes and gotten all kinds of messages out of it, and in every case when you go through it seems foolproof, but it is all nonsense. The point is, if you construct numerological system and code, you can go to something and pick out just about what you want to make it add up to what you want. And Shakespeare is the classical example of this. It is amazing, literally amazing, what they have read out of Shakespeare. And their systems, as I say, seem to be foolproof. But in actuality they are remarkably clever nonsense.

Our time is just about up, I do want to share one little thing with you before we conclude our meeting, this is from the January Westways, 1968. And the title is: Pasadena Does the Impossible it is an article about the New Years day activities there, the number of people who hit that small area for the Rose Bowl Parade, for the Rose Bowl game, the San Anita race track, and so on. “A million and a half people and 300,000 cars. Well this problem of how to handle so many people in such a limited space, and so many cars over a limited number of roads was fed into a computer in New York. The computer answered that it simply was not possible to get a million and a half people and up to 300,000 automobiles into and out of Pasadena on that day. The computer has spoken, and no doubt the Pasadena police department should realize that what they do is impossible. But they have been in ignorance not having the benefit of science, so they have been doing the impossible, year in and year out.”

Incidentally, the master plan they draw up for the police force in order to accomplish this is as thick as a Los Angeles classified telephone directory. It is a magnificent operation each year, a computer can’t do it; man can.

So much for computers. And with that we stand adjourned.