Revelation

The New Jerusalem

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Prerequisite/Law

Lesson: 27-30

Genre: Talk

Track: 195

Dictation Name: RR129P27

Location/Venue:

Year: 1960’s-1970’s

Revelation 21:9-22:5, The New Jerusalem.

“9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.

10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,

11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;

12 And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:

13 On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.

14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

15 And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.

16 And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.

17 And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.

18 And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.

19 And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;

20 The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolyte; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.

21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls: every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.

22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.

23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

24 And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

25 And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.

26 And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.

27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.

22 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

3 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:

4 And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.

5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.”

When we began the study of the book of Revelation, we saw that it is a mistake to approach the Bible and expect it to be a simple matter. The Bible is not an easy book to read, it is not a simple document. There are indeed many passages of great simplicity, but as we survey the Bible as a whole it is indeed a difficult book.

Consider for example, the books of the law, the writings of the prophets, the epistles of Paul, the book of Revelation. These are all difficult reading material to grasp, and this makes up the bulk of the Bibl. The Bible requires study. It deals with difficult matters. True enough, the doctrine of salvation is very simple, it is the ABC’s of the Bible. But beyond that that, the doctrines and teaching of scripture do involve matters that are profound, not readily grasped, requiring study.

It is a serious mistake on the part of Christians to give as they must, years to mastering a profession, understanding matters of the everyday world, and then feeling that if the essence of the Bible cannot be boiled down in a few simple sentences then they cannot waste time on it.

Similarly, because the Bible is so profound throughout, it is a very grievous sin on the part of the clergy to spend their time in trifling pep-talks from the pulpit.

Now this passage we have just read deals with the nature of the New Jerusalem, and as we saw previously, the New Jerusalem, the new Creation began with the coming of Christ; all of us are members of it by virtue of our membership in Christ. The New Creation is here, now, today. Wherever Christ reigns. It shall be in its fullness at the end of the world, when there is the new creation in its totality and the resurrection.

This passage as it describes the New Jerusalem describes it symbolically. It is obviously symbolic because when we come to the city we are told it lies foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth, and the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. Now this obviously is symbolism; it is not describing a literal city which is as high as it is broad and as it is long, in other words a perfect cube. This is an impossibility. Obviously symbolism is involved here as throughout the book.

Let us analyze the various symbols whereby the New Creation is described, in order that we might understand what is here given to us for our comfort, admonition and strengthening. First of all, the New Creation, the people of God, the church, Christian institutions, the totality of the kingdom is described in the symbolism of a bride.

Now this is a recurring symbol of Scripture, and a very revealing one concerning our life as Christians. A bride is faithful, pure, loving, obedient, radiant with joy and confident in her love. It is her hour. And so the symbolism of the bride is applied to us as members of the new creation. We are the bride of Christ, and we are as we face the future, as we face the prospects that are ours in history, to have the expectancy of a bride.

Now this seems a curious symbol to use when we have just gone through the section that describes Babylon the Great, the Harlot, the Mother of Abominations, this great dream of a one world order, which will totally classify, totally regiment, totally control man, and indeed Revelation describes this as the purpose of the anti Christian forces, to create this world order; to establish this total regimentation of man, this total planning; and Revelation gives us a very great deal of information concerning the nature of this drive and the plans for this world order without God. And yet in the face of all these things we are told that because we are members of Christ, of His new creation, our expectancy with respect to the future is to be like that of a bride.

When a bride assumes her role as wife she does it with joy. She may know that they have years of struggle financially before they establish themselves; she may know that perhaps her husband is going off to war very soon. She may know that there are all kinds of problems in the immediate future, but nonetheless her position, her attitude is one of joy, of expectancy concerning the future; and so should ours be as members of the New Creation.

Second, the New Jerusalem is described as having the glory of God, the glory, the tabernacling presence of God once dwelt in the most holy place, in the tabernacle, and then in the temple. Now the church as the corporate body of believers has the Holy Spirit, and individual believers also. Our bodies are now temples of the Holy Ghost, and as the Catechism declares, the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever; and this we can do because now we have the Holy Spirit, and we have the confidence that He that within us is greater than he that is in the world.

Third, we are told that the New Creation, the New Jerusalem is measured. This is significant; that is, it is made, it is cut out even as a carpenter measures out lumber and cuts it to size, and the measuring also we are told is to be described as a cube, a perfect cube, the city lieth foursquare, the length and bread of it and the height are equal.

Now the cube is an ancient symbol of perfection, one of the most common symbols in the ancient world of the idea of perfection. And so it is, what Revelation here does is to take this ancient symbol of perfection, and to say: “Perfection is to be realized not in terms of Babylon, not in terms of the dreams of the social planners and the statists, but in and through Christ, through His new creation.”

In ancient Israel the dimensions of the most Holy Place in the Tabernacle and then in the temple were exactly that of a perfect cube. The length, the height and the breadth were equal, to symbolize that Gods new creation is to be perfection itself.

Significantly, Ancient Babylon, the city of Babylon, the capital of the empire, was built on a square to symbolize that it was indeed the center of perfection, and the square has been throughout the centuries among occultist groups and various secret societies, a common symbol, because of their belief that perfection is to be attained through them.

Fourth we have the symbolism of the open gates, and no night; and now gates have a significance in that gates are used throughout history as a protective device. Gates protect you from the outside world; gates can be locked against intruders. And so the symbol of an open gate is the symbol of security. No night there. Again a symbol of security. Gates are locked at night against darkness, when those who approach are not readily seen, when the household is asleep and cannot readily protect itself. But the concept of open gates and no night there means the security and peace of a world that has been freed from the oppressor and from the enemy; of a world that has been freed from the darkness of tyranny and of sin.

And this is a subject that is often repeated in the prophets, who give us a vision of history culminating in a time of light. And one of the greatest verses as we saw when we studied the prophet Zechariah in the 14th chapter and 7th verse of his prophecy is this sentence: “At eventide, it shall be light.” At the evening time of history, when the darkness seems to close about man, when the enemy seems closest to triumph, when the forces of Babylon seem most ready to fulfill their dream of total slavery, of total planning, of the dream of Babylon; at that time, suddenly there shall be a reversal. At eventide it shall be light. At the very moment when the darkness seems to close about us, then suddenly it shall be light. God shall reverse the processes which seem to be closing about us naturally, and history shall see the overthrow of the night of the forces of statism, of socialism, and of oppression.

Then, even more tellingly in the fifth symbol this same fact is set forth. The foundation stones are described for us next, and we are told that the foundations of the walls of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones; and twelve stones are given in consecutive order.

Now these stones first of all have a meaning in terms of the fact that the High Priest of Israel bore these twelve stones in this order on his breast plate as he officiated, as he went in specifically into the Holy of Holies. Each of the twelve stones represented one of the twelve tribes of Israel, the people of God; and the stones were called the chosen. So that as the High Priest, typifying Christ, went into the Holy of Holies into the very presence of God, he bore on his breastplate symbols of the people of God whom he represented.

But even more, these twelve stones were known in all of antiquity, and are known to this day round about us by many people as the twelve signs of the zodiac. The twelve signs of the Zodiac represented also by a gem; these twelve precious stones.

Now the signs of the zodiac present for us the course of the sun, from its rising to its setting. And the Zodiac of course appears in a great deal of ancient philosophy and religion in their every-day symbolism as representing their basic perspective concerning life; so that the signs of the Zodiac and the twelve stones representing the signs of the Zodiac, were a kind of capsule philosophy of history, and they tell us the nature of all religion and all philosophy in the ancient world, whether it was the religion and the philosophy of the Egyptians or the Babylonians, or the Assyrians, or the Greeks, or the Romans, it did not vary. It portrayed life as rising with the sun and setting with the sun, beginning in a golden age and ending in darkness.

And thus all of ancient religion and philosophy was pessimistic. Its basic perspective was that of eternal recurrence, a cyclical view of history; even as the sun rises and sets, so creation rises out of chaos and nothingness and will ascend, and then will go down into eternal darkness and resume its place as blind atoms; and then out of this fortuitous concourse of atoms, to use the ancient phrase, again by chance, pure chance, creation will again arise and ascend, follow the signs of the Zodiac down into eternal nothingness.

And so man’s life is basically meaningless. There is no hope for man, no hope for history, no hope anywhere. This is the significance of the twelve signs of the Zodiac, the twelve gems. But their significance in Revelation is directly opposite, because the twelve signs, the twelve gems are given to us in reverse order. It is a specific and deliberate denial of all pagan religion and philosophy, it says to us that instead of the world rising up out of a golden age and setting, it rises up out of darkness, out of the east as it were; and ends in a blaze of light in the west, an eternal blaze of light; out of the fall, out of sin and death, into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.

Every now and then, someone who dabbles in astrology tells me: “Oh, but Revelation has something to do with astrology because in the 21st chapter you have the twelve signs of the Zodiac, and in astrology we believe in that.” Yes indeed, but this is a particular denial of everything that you represent with your faith in astrology. Because it confounds the basic pessimism of all pagan religion and philosophy, as well as astrology ancient and modern in that it declares emphatically: “At eventide it shall be light.” The darkness shall be dispelled, history culminates in light, and there shall be no night there. Eternal, unending light.

The sixth symbolism of this passage is expressed in the two words in the 22nd verse: ‘no temple’. “And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.”

This is in particular a telling symbol. A temple literally means a house of God, and all temples in the ancient world were houses of God, where the Gods, the idols, were literally housed. This is why when Solomon dedicated the temple, at the time of the dedication he said specifically that this temple could not house God, because God the great sovereign creator of heaven and earth could not be confined into a house made with hands. And now we are told that the glorious destiny of the people of God of the new creation is a world in which every believer is a temple of God, and the whole universe is his temple, because he has redeemed it unto himself. And that new creation begins when each of us become a believer, a member of Jesus Christ, and it is extended as more and more of the world and of institutions and nations are brought into His kingdom, under the sovereignty of God; and it culminates in the glorious end of history in the totality of the resurrection.

Seventh, we are told: “The nations do bring their glory and their honor into it.” This new creation as history develops will see that even the rebellious nations will be subordinated to God, and they shall serve Him; and all their wealth and all their efforts, even in their rebellion according to the prophet Haggai, shall be brought finally into His service.

Paul summed this up in romans 8:28 when he said: “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” This is the goal, the culmination of history. All things are to be brought together, for good, unto us who are His people.

The eighth symbol of the walls, walls which are historically built to keep out enemies, are here described as walls of jasper. Now, jasper is used to describe God, as a symbol for God; we meet with it for example in Revelation 4:3. So that, here we are told in effect in this symbol that God is the wall around us. And this is a familiar symbol of Scripture. Again, as we turn to the prophet Zechariah 2:5, we have this declaration: “For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.”

So that God declares to us in this symbol that He is our defender, He is the wall of fire round about us, so that we have our security of God.

The 9th symbol is of the garden, now in the city. The Garden of Eden is here meant, the tree of life. All things that were present in paradise now in the city. The ideal of the city of course is that of perfect communion. The concept of the city as we meet with it originally in civilization was of a group of people of like mind and of like faith, so that citizenship rested on a common religious faith, and communion in terms of that. Criminals were not tolerated in cities originally, they were thrown out. They did not have citizenship. Those within the walls were only those of like mind and of like faith, and of like character. But man in his sin has destroyed the garden and the city, but now God says both these concepts shall be won. The city of the future, the city of Gods future shall be a perfect community, and it shall have all the assets of the garden, and his name, the tenth symbol, shall be in their foreheads.

Christ shines forth through His saints, so that they are as it were, visibly and manifestly His people, so much so that it is as though the name of God were written in our foreheads.

But one more symbol, a particularly beautiful one to which we have referred already; in Revelation 22:2, “In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river,” (The river of the water of life) “was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”

Now here we have a remarkable symbol, of a tree that bears twelve manners of fruit, that is, every kind; twelve being used here as a term of fullness, the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve apostles, twelve manner of fruit, and yields her fruit every month.

Now, this again is a symbol. It is a symbol of the fact that potentiality and actuality are one. Now, fruit trees as we know that reveal their potentiality in the spring, in buds, and finally in summer and fall the actuality in the fruit. But here the potentiality and actuality are one; in other words, there is full self realization immediately. This is a symbol of the fullness of the new creation, that it is also a symbol of that which is increasingly going to be ours in this world, in the new creation. In eternity all our potentialities and actualities will be one. There will be no unrealized potentiality in our being. Here today we are full of unrealized potentialities.

I recall vividly when I was still a student, the death of one particularly notable historian; and hearing the very deeply distressed words of another scholar as he returned from the service, as he said: “The mind of that man, all the tremendous knowledge, all the books he could have written that he was not yet able to write; think of all the potentiality that was buried this morning.”

But this symbol tells us that in eternity, potentiality and actuality will be one. All the hidden talents, the unrealized potentialities of our being will be full realized, and it also tells us that as we progressively have a Christian order, as the new creation, as the sovereignty of God is manifest all around us, then progressively the actuality and the potentiality in our lives comes closer and closer to realization, because we are devoting less and less of our time to dealing with the enemy and with the adversities of that which is trying to overwhelm and destroy us. We move into an environment of greater freedom.

Certainly I experienced something of that when I broke with the old U.S.A Presbyterian church, where my ministry was an uphill one, and a continual struggle against forces that were hostile to everything that was Christian, and were trying to overwhelm and destroy everything that stood for Christian Orthodoxy; and it was suddenly as though I had a new lease of life when I left that old world; a greater freedom to speak, a greater ability to realize myself.

And so it is as God delivers us progressively into his new creation, we have a greater self-realization; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. The work of reconstruction and restoration will progress as we in the freedom of Christ grow in grace and in knowledge, and in our service to Him. Let us pray.

Almighty God our heavenly Father, we give thanks unto Thee for the glory that is ours in Jesus Christ. We thank Thee that here and now we are citizens of the New Jerusalem, of the New Creation, that Thou hast regenerated us and made us a new people unto Thee. Give us boldness our Father to walk in the confidence of victory, knowing that if Thou art for us, who can be against us? That in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Our Lord and our God, how great Thou art, and we praise Thee. In Jesus name, amen.

Any questions now, first of all with regard to our lesson.

Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] The question is with regard to our conscience, and its relationship to these things and the testimony of God. Now, all men having been created by God, there is unmistakably the stamp of God in their entire being. So that, as they attempt to deflect themselves from the service of God, they suffer. It is like trying to take a carburetor out of a Cadillac and putting it into a Ford, it doesn’t belong. We were created for God and for His service, when we try to serve anything else our whole being is out of joint, so that we suffer; and this is reflected in our conscience which is under the burden of guilt when it departs from God. But as men depart from God they also attempt to stifle their conscience, so that as Saint Paul said, such people have their conscience as it were, seared with a hot iron. The more they harden themselves in their sin and their rebellion against God, the more they attempt to deaden their conscience. They lose the sensitivity of their being. They can never completely stifle their conscience, however.

The Christian however has a different conscience. His conscience now is enlightened by the Holy Spirit, so that his conscience not only makes him aware of his transgressions, but also gives him guidance to the measure that he studies the word of God, that he might walk in the way of righteousness and truth.

Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Glorify God.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] It is… yes. The requirement, the Chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever applies to all people equally, whether they are pastors or laymen, or women or children. All, equally, are under this obligation, to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

Now, we glorify God in terms of our particular calling. There is a very foolish notion abroad in certain circles that you are not serving God unless you are continually witnessing, or passing out tracts, or doing something of the sort. This is nonsense. The first and foremost way that a man glorifies God is by meeting his responsibilities in terms of his vocation and his family, to apply the word of God and his Godly responsibilities there. Similarly, the first and foremost way a woman glorifies God is to meet her Godly responsibilities as a woman, as a wife, as a mother; and I think a great deal of harm has been done in certain circles where people have been given the idea that unless they are at the church, endlessly engaged in activities, or endlessly witnessing in one way or another, that they are not serving God. And the home has been damaged by certain churches, simply because of this kind of attitude. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Oh certainly, when we have met these obligations, and we have time on our hands, then as we feel led we can serve God in a variety of way, and some people have a great deal of time, and do a great many things in the community, in the church, in various activities, that are most useful. God has to be served, not merely in the church or in the home, but in every order of life; in the political order, in the economic order, in every calling, in every association of every sort. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Very true. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, we are seeing two things today, really. We are seeing an extensive breakdown of the home on the one side, and on the other we are seeing a very intensive revival of family life by way of reaction; so that those who do believe in family life are renewing a dedication to the family in a way that is new for the past few generations. The Christian school movement has helped this greatly, and I think that we are beginning to see at a very rapid rate of growth, a development in parental authority, parental supervision, that five and ten years ago would’ve been startling to us.

I cited to one or two of you a little episode from my own home that I thought was very interesting. One of my girls who is in highschool had a date, recently. And before the young man called, he called me and asked if he might take her out to dinner and to a movie, to see A Man for All Seasons, and would I approve of the film. And he also told me at what time he would have her home. And when I mentioned that to one couple here present, the man said: “Well, any fellow who comes around dating my girl had better do the same too!”

Now, this is an attitude that didn’t exist 5-10 years ago, and it is increasingly common. In other words, the very breakdown on the one hand is leading to a renewed emphasis on the family on the other hand. Now what do you do when there is a breakdown? First of all, there has to be a Christian faith and a lively one. There is no possibility of a recovery without that, because without that there is no life there, there is no faith in terms of which you can re-build. And second, Christian education is basic here because the public school basically breeds rebellion, so that it is essential that the child be in a good Christian school, because to put the child in an atmosphere that is going to breed rebellion is to ask for trouble.

Today the kind of thing you are getting in the public schools is increasingly fostering this sort of thing, and I have been told by more than a few young people and parents that some of the material the children are given in the public schools, textbooks and others, they are not permitted to take home because the parents must not be allowed to see these things.

Then, someone who teaches at one of our universities in this state told me of one faculty member who publicly stated, and this was in the school paper, that it was their duty as faculty members to corrupt the young people, because from his premise, Christian civilization is bad and you must corrupt it. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] It withers, it withers. The conscience of those who stay in churches where they should not be will progressively wither, because you cannot grow without spiritual nourishment, and if you are in a place where that which is preached from the pulpit is contrary to the scripture, or it is nothing by pious pap, how are you going to grow?

Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] I couldn’t quite hear you…

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, it is both heaven and the new creation after the resurrection, as well as our life here. In other words, the New Jerusalem represents that which began with the resurrection of Christ, who was called the first fruits of the New Creation. And each of us as we become believers are citizens of the New Jerusalem. When we have a Christian home, this is a part of the New Jerusalem. When we have a Christian community or a Christian organization, this is a part of the New Jerusalem; and the goal of history is that the whole world become a part of the New Jerusalem; and we are told by Isaiah: “The knowledge of God shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.”

Our time is just about up, if these two questions are short, we will take them and no more. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Right.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, I am not saying that it is wrong in principle, just that the idea that this is the way you witness, and this you’ve got to do if you are witnessing is wrong.

Now, the family, the home, is the basic institution of society, so that no society of any kind can endure without the foundation of the family. Therefore there has to be a recognition of the primacy of the home in any Christian society.

Yes, you had…

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] There will be a progressive renewal of this earth to the end of time. At the end of the world, there shall be a total recreation of all things. So there will be of course the total recreation of all things at the end of the world, and it will be beyond our ability to recognize, so that this world and all things else will disappear in terms of a new creation; they will be done away with.

Now, our time is up but there are a couple of things I do want to pass on to you that I think are interesting signs of the times. The first is with reference, just recently, to a conference of the University Christian movement; and this movement is related to the National Council of Churches through its division of Christian education. However it is not limited to the National Council group. The University Christian movement includes the Roman Catholic work, the Newman House groups, the Eastern Orthodox student groups, and the Quaker groups. All these met recently at this major conference in Cleveland. There were some 60 topics at the conference, none of which had anything to do with Christian faith. The subjects ranged from redistribution of income in the U.S.A, to Abortion: Moral and Legal Dilemmas, and Movements of National Liberation in South Africa. So its basic emphasis was on revolution.

One of the special events, the high points of the meeting, was listening on a special telephone hook-up, to the so-called comedian Dick Gregory, who was in Chicago at the time, and spoke to the assembled group over this hook-up. Now, among the other items on the program, a Berkeley California Poet recited some of his religious verse, including a peace about getting drunk on Christmas, and another about Mistress Marijuana. One of the Roman Catholic Priests best known for his opposition to the Vietnam War, Daniel (Berrigan?) read some of his poetry.

There was no conference-wide worship, but one of the special services they did have during the week in the ballroom featured only one prayer, the Lord’s Prayer said backward. That service ended with a dance.

Now, those of you who know anything about Satanic masses, the witchcraft cults of Medieval Europe and of modern times, and of the Salem Witchcraft trials, will recognize immediately what this involves. The Lord’s prayer said backwards was a required ritual in all witchcraft covens and satanic masses, the point of it being, just as they recited the Lord’s prayer backwards, so it was their goal to turn all social order upside down, all morality upside down, everything upside down, to reverse Gods order in every realm. Now this is the meaning of the Lord’s prayer being recited backwards, and this was the religious feature of this University Christian movement, and of their conference.

So you see precisely where the churches are ending up now in their youth work, in out-right revolutionary Satanism..

Then this item from the Wall Street Journal of January the 12th 1968: 22 Yale divinity school students, and 18 Harvard divinity school students have been arrested for stealing books from the University bookstore. One of them is reported to have said when arrested: “You mean you are calling me a thief for taking a lousy book?” Naturally the deans of both institutions feel that arrest is too drastic an action, quote: “Ruining as it does the careers of some of our most promising intellects.”

And this, reading from the bulletin of Trinity Episcopal church, their comment on it, this is from Victoria Texas: “Apparently the emphasis of both of these overrated institutions has been on the intellect and not the whole man; after all Harvard is the principle home of the death of God theology, and the Reverend William Sloane Coffin Junior, the Chaplin of Yale himself under indictment, has been so busy accusing the President of the United States of stealing Vietnam that he obviously has not had time to treat thievery…”

[Tape ends]