Human Nature in its First Estate

Work and Dominion

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Psychology

Genre: Lecture

Track: 03

Dictation Name: RR131B3

Location/Venue: ________

Year: 1960’s-1970’s.

Genesis 2, verses 1 through 20. Work and Dominion. We began a few weeks ago on the biblical doctrine of man, biblical psychology. And we continue now with the subject of work and dominion.

Genesis 2:1-20

“Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished.

2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5 before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; 6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.

7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Life in God’s Garden

8 The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush.14 The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

18 And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” 19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.”

Very common error is the assumption that work was an aspect or product of the curse of man, and the justification for this is sought in Genesis 3: verses 17-19. “-and the sweat of thy brow, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it.” and here definitely we find work as an aspect of the curse. Apparently. But in reality it was Adam and Eve who were cursed. All nature also shared in that curse.

But the curse was primarily upon man in every aspect in their lives therefore reflected that curse. Whereas, in creation, in Eden, the two great joys of Eve’s life should have been a delight in the protection of her husband and his care and lordship on the one hand, and children on the other. Now these are made a source of sorrow and trouble to her by the fact of sin! Then Adam was created to work, to till the Garden, to subdue it, to tend for it, to name the animals (a scientific task), and this should have been his joy as well as his calling, his privilege. Now his work was to become replete with frustration and disappointment, because of the curse.

Work thus, was not an aspect of the curse. It was man that was cursed and therefore whatever he did shared in that curse! Work existed in Eden, it was central to man’s creation and nature. He was created to cultivate the ground and to care for it, and this was related to his creation mandate. A man is a man in terms of his ability to work and to work responsibly. To work and to advance himself and the welfare of his household in terms of work. This is very definitely true in almost every culture.

It is all the more true in christian society. Our country is more Christian than most. Europeans say we have a ‘Puritan tango’, and I was interested yesterday as I was flying home from Indianapolis, to read the comments of a European who had traveled in this country from coast to coast, and was very irritated with a question that came up over and over again in every community from New York to the West Coast! After the introductions and whether it was a cocktail party or something else to drink, the conversation really got down to business- after the frills and ‘how do you do’s, and the name, and so on. The question that always came up was this. “And what do you do?”

He said this was all an American asks! This was how they classified him! “And what do you do?” Which of course was very revealing! And it does indeed, they are right, reveal our Puritan biblical background. Because in terms of scripture a man’s calling is his work. And therefore a man is identifiable in terms of work. As a working man. What is his vocation? It helps define the man.

Man’s work has varying aspects. Tilling the earth was an aspect of man’s calling which meant subjugating and developing the earth, bringing it under his dominion. This included all manual labor, agriculture, science, every development of the earth and it’s resources. Man cannot use the earth apart from God. He is a steward over the earth under God, not a thief or a murderer of the earth. As I pointed out part of his calling is to name the animals, and as we have seen on other occasions this is a scientific task, because to name means in scripture to classify.

The animals were thus to be classified to be understood scientifically. But let us add something further: that scientific fact was eminently practical. Science today is abstract. Adam was to understand these things, these animals, the class--the world of nature, in relationship to himself and in relationship to God. In terms of a total context, a moral context. And of course this is precisely what modern man refuses to face up to.

During the past week as I lectured at various universities, the subject of abortion was not apart of my topic but since I did talk several time on the myth of overpopulation, the question came up. And it was interesting how student after student, and faculty members as well, refused to go into the moral issue. It was strictly something medical and scientific. They did not want to face up to any cultural, any moral, and religious questions.

In terms of Adam’s calling, the scientific task can never be isolated from the rest of life, from man and from God. It is always part of a total world. And in everything the total questions are inescapable. What does it mean ultimately in relationship with man and with God? Their hatred of this type of question is intense. Then, as we have seen on other occasions also, man was given a helpmeet only after he’d proven himself in work, and when we were dealing with biblical law I pointed out that it could have been years and years after his creation before he was given it, because he had a calling, a task. Naming the animals, understanding nature, proving himself.

In terms of this, in Israel and in Judaism, a man could not be an office holder in church or state unless he were married and had proven himself. The new Testament in 1’st Timothy 3:1-5 and 1’st Timothy 4:3 retained and reemphasized this requirement. Then further we must say that work was ordained before the fall and will continue after the fall is erased. After we are removed from the curse as individuals by the grace of God and salvation by his atonement, work is not ended for us. We are now to work and to work more faithfully, more productively for God and in the new creation according to Revelations 22:3 “Work is an aspect of the resurrected man’s life, but totally without any trace of the curse.” The fall meant that man, instead of exercising dominion over the earth, returns to the earth instead in frustration and debt, becoming himself of dust. Who had been created by God to be king over the dust beneath his feet.

Now having said this about work we must then go one to say that work in itself has no meaning. Just as science -to some of these people in this discussion about abortion I had this past week with a number of people- science in itself is meaningless. And this is why people who want to deny meaning and morality want to have a purely scientific question when they deal with abortion. SO work in itself is meaningless. Work must be purposeful, it must be related to God and to man.

When the Russian novelist a century ago _____ was for a time a prisoner in Siberia, he reported the significance of work there among the prisoners of Czar. If they were working on road building or building a fort or something of that sort, the work was hard and they were really pushed. But this didn’t bother them, it gave meaning to their lives. THey were building something constructive! But if a man were a problem to the guards they had a way of punishing his which could break him totally. It was to limit him to the prison yard and to give him a job of moving a pile of stone, big boulders, from one end of the yard to the other. He could take his time, work slowly, as long as he kept moving. When he had them all brought to one end of the yard, he was then to lift them and take them back to the other side, and then repeat that again and again. Totally meaningless. And by means of this work, with no pressure on it, but totally meaningless, they could break any man.

It was the absolute punishment. Meaning is necessary for man, and meaningless work destroys a man. And this is why men suffer in a society in a culture where because things are dislocated, they don’t see a future for their work! It can be through inflation, it can be through immoral conditions, through employers who are dishonest, but wherever meaning is withdrawn from work will become instead of a joy, a punishment.

We can all remember or cite from present experiences situations where a position, a job, which would be otherwise a joy becomes difficult and a punishment precisely because certain conditions are reducing it to meaningless. Meaninglessness gains nothing by being well paid! Remember last year the soviet writer who was the favored writer in the Soviet Union, living in luxury, who defected to Britain and his reason was was that it was a nightmare of meaninglessness and he could no longer endure it.

Thus it is basic to true work that it must further mans calling to exercise dominion under God. A man must feel more of a man because of his work, more secure as head of his household, stronger as a member of society and and as a man before God. It must be a means whereby he extends his dominion. Where he can survey the work of his hands and feel a satisfaction in it, where he can feel that his work has furthered progress. Led to improvement in the welfare or the health, or the progress of individuals or society. Under such work a man thrives! Indeed, under such work a man’s life expectancy increases.

What there is a separation of work from meaning and from dominion it leads to the spiritual sickness of both man and society. It brutalizes man and work becomes slavery, bondage. Men hate work. They want to escape it.

I was interested in some of the reading I was doing while on this trip I always pack a number of books so that on the plane as well as in the motel late at night I have something to occupy my mind! And I was reading about the debates a hundred years or more ago in the British parliament of wages and hours of work. It was customary for not only children but men to work twelve hours a day, six days a week. And of course the British manufacturers were hiring in keeping these boys and girls as well as adults were getting twelve hours a day, and said it was good for the kids because if they let them off for a half day holiday -and that was the legislation proposed on Saturday afternoons, they would only get into mischief! So it was better for their moral and spiritual welfare to work twelve hours on Saturdays.

Now that seems very hard, and in a sense it was very wrong. But the interesting thing is that there were actually girls and boys who testified that they actually wanted to work, and even more significant cause I’m sure a lot of the kids didn’t like it, the employers would work that long and longer! And enjoyed it! Here were wealthy employers who would stay not only twelve but thirteen, fourteen hours at the plant. And would do that six days a week!

Well, when we look at the times apart from the things that seemed to us so backward and brutal, what we have to realize was the tremendous explosive expansion of the industrial revolution. And these men felt like they were accomplishing something, they were revolutionizing the world of their day, they were bringing in tremendous progress. As a result it was tremendously exciting for them. And so the big problem was to get them to quit, go home, go to bed, and get some sleep! You see when work has meaning, it excites, it attracts man. It becomes a joy to him so that those long hours were not a matter of punishment to them, and they very sincerely felt it was a wonderful thing to have the opportunity to work.

Because they were remaking the world! And from a primitive, backward, non industrialized, non mechanized world, they were creating the modern world... and they were excited about it. But when work and meaning are separated, and work and dominion become separated, men seek power not in work then but in destruction. And they become destructive towards man and the earth. Work without God is work without dominion and thus it becomes destructive.

I said earlier that this European that had recently come to our country, was asked from coast to coast “And what do you do?”. He didn’t like the question, but it did show that there was an element of health in this country that makes us more productive than the rest of the work today. Because here a man is still defined in terms of work. But in a sense even that represents a comedown... because once a man was defined here in terms of what he believed and what he did, in terms of faith as well as work. Now, half of that earlier Puritan equation is gone. And that’s why work is losing it’s meaning!

That’s why in Europe where they are further gone, productivity, work, produces less. Because the faith that motivates man to make work meaningful, as aspect of his dominion is gone. THis is why work is losing it’s meaning and it’s attractiveness to men in our country. For work without God is work without meaning and dominion. And man loses interest in it. But work under God empowers man with energy!

The word energy comes from the Greek ‘energeia’ which means work. It’s work that gives energy to man because it gives meaning to his life. Very significant fact. The work for dominion, in Greek, in New Testament Greek, is {?}, force, strength, power. And it comes from the root, craw[?], to perfect, to complete. And the word craw[?] scholars say is probably the source of our word Creator.

Indeed, according to the dictionaries, craw[?] from the Latin creatus, {?}, is related to an Armenian word which means I bring forth. It has reference to the creative work of God. THus the purpose of work and of dominion is to create energy to bring forth meaning, the potentiality of man. To bring forth that which is his purpose subduing the earth. A Godly order. A work free world is a dead world... it separates man from life and meaning. Dominion is a basic aspect of the image of God in Man. The image of God is knowledge, righteousness, holiness, and dominion. A work free society then, would finally be a man free society. It would be a graveyard.

Thus it is important in terms of biblical psychology, in defining man, to ask: what does he believe? And what does he do? a man is known, a man in defined, by these questions. Let us pray.

Almighty God our Heavenly Father. We thank thee that thou didst make us and hast re made us in Jesus Christ, and hast re-established us in terms of Thy holy calling, and hast given us a work to do. Thou knowest O Lord, we labor in a time when men are destroying the meaning of work because they have forsaken Thee. Give us faith, patience, courage, and endurance, that we might in these discouraging times, be encouraged by Thy presence and by Thy word. That we may so build, that that which is of Thee may endure, and that we may be instrumental in the tearing down of the things which are not of Thee, and the furthering of the things which Thou doest ordain. Bless O Lord our faith and our favors, and use them for Thy name’s sake. In Jesus name, Amen.

Are there any questions now first of all with respect to our lesson?

Yes?

[audience member speaks] [audience member is unintelligible] [he talked a really long time]

Well you see, what the government is doing is playing God. And it says that constitutes science which is useful to us, and therefore we will call it science. But meanwhile it is limiting the patented right of what may be useful to society at large apart from God and to Man as he labors under God. So that the law there is progressively being interpreted in terms of the state as God. When this was originally framed of course, the basic concept was religious, and therefore the thing had to prove itself in a Godly society in a Godly social order. And this is no longer true, or it is rapidly becoming no longer true. And that is the reason for the switch. so you see at the same time that the government promotes for science and useful arts is what pleases itself. Isn’t it making it very much difficult to get patents in other areas where the government isn’t involved.

Yes?

[audience member speaks] [audience member is unintelligible]

Yes. Well, uh, the word recreation is a very interesting word, it means to re-make, re-create. It’s very close to having the same meaning at conversion and regeneration. Now the word is very interesting because what it does say is that man now finds his remaking, his recreation, his recharging, not in faith or works, but in escaping from both. You see, it’s running away from either faith and work, only in that way can he be recharged.

Now rest has a place in scripture. And you remember when we studied in terms of biblical law the tithe, there were three tithes. The first is the basic ten percent tithe, the second every other year the poor tithe, and the alternating years, the third tithe, the rejoicing tithe. TO REJOICE before the Lord. So that in the biblical scheme of things what we call recreation was indeed recreation. Because it was, yes, resting, eating, it was a vacation you might say, but it was before the Lord and unto the Lord! So that it was very definitely oriented in terms of the basic faith in terms of God. But today man boasts in work, and in faith has abandoned God; so in his recreation he will too.

Another question? yes?

[audience member speaks] [audience member is unintelligible]

I’m sorry I can’t hear you--

[audience member speaks] [audience member is unintelligible]

[Rushdoony turns the pages in his Bible to a particular passage]

‘He has exalted the horn of his people.” Horn is the symbol of power. The horn of a bull represents his power, his aggressive strength. So that when the Psalmist says he hast exalted the horn of his people he hath made them strong. You asked a question a couple months ago and I didn’t have the answer then, and I did look it up and I’ve been meaning to answer it since then. It was about the baskes[?]. Do you remember that? Well, very interesting things about the bask, and of course their trial in Spain. They are predominantly many of the baskes revolutionary, they’re anarchistic, sometimes they’re communistic, but all of this is nonsense. In other words it’s a facade. Basically what they’re doing is to use this political excuse to oppose whatever government is in power in Spain in any period in order to gain independence.

Now to me this is a very interesting thing, the baskes[?] are a very old people, they were the people who had a good deal of western europe before the coming of the Celts. And then the Celts were pushed out by other people. So the Baskes[?] were pushed into the tyrannies, into the high mountains. They lost their independence in the fifth and sixth century. That long ago. But the interesting thing is, after all these centuries they not only have their languages but in this century, in the last thirty years, there has been an increasingly strong and sometimes violent vast independent movement.

Another factor... you see we’re talking about Nationalism on a political level on a one world order, and yet you see a people who have had no independence for all these centuries are really getting violent in their demands for it. The Veretong[?] in France are the only really Gaelic people. They are related to the Welsh and the Irish and the Scots. They speak a variation of the same language, and they have been getting more and more insistent on their rights and autonomy. Independence movement. And they’ve finally fought in the courts and won the rights to give the old welsh-gaelic names to their children, which were forbidden until very recently. It was just settled in the courts recently.

And if you’ve seen some of these Welch names, how long they are, the registers in France always refused to register these names by law because they were foreign and an impossible thing for any Frenchman to handle and they had to have French names. Now of course you have the Welsh movement. So much so that they were worried about the safety of Prince Charles when he was crowned Prince of Wales. And you have a growing Scots independence movement, you can go over the face of Europe. And you find that when they’re talking the most about internationalism, there is more of a resurgence of these various native {?} which are in some cases, centuries old! And a demand to a recognition so the whole thing is beginning to fall apart.

Yes?

[audience member speaks] [audience member is unintelligible]

Oh yes, yes, a very good question. What this song says is that the destiny of the saints ultimately is to rule the world and to execute vengeance upon the heathen and punishment upon the people, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron to execute upon them the judgement written the judgement in terms of God’s law. This honor have all the saints, in other words it’s an honor to do them in.

So that’s our destiny someday in the future under God. I think it’s a marvelous song. I think it’s a beautiful song.

[audience member speaks] [audience member is unintelligible]

Well probably because the traveler just lived on income and did not work and you know in this country prior to World War I, if a man were very wealthy and felt he was just going to live on his income, he moved to Europe. It was regarded as immoral by Americans not to work! And of course there are a lot of people in Europe who simply live of their incomes, but Americans regarded that as simply immoral.

[audience member speaks] [audience member is unintelligible]

Yes, and of course what the socialists do is aim at a society where everybody is going to be idle supposedly, right now they’re talking about a totally automated world in which every man will be freed from work, actually machines create more jobs.

Yes?

[audience member speaks] [audience member is unintelligible]

Mhm.... yes. Very good. That illustrates the point I just made. Meaningless work is destructive of a man.

Yes?

[audience member speaks] [audience member is unintelligible]

No, I was--

Well we’ll see more of that, they will get progressively more and more blasphemous.

yes?

[audience member speaks] [audience member is unintelligible]

Yes, I can believe that.

Yes?

[audience member speaks] [audience member is unintelligible]

Very good! The question was, is that what hell will be like? meaninglessness? Yes, that’s precisely what hell is. It’s the ultimate of what hell is, it’s meaninglessness. And when our Lord presents a picture of hell symbolically as fire or a burning, and weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth where the worm dies not, it’s of a world where there is self torment and no meaning, no communication. Hell is the place where there is no communication between person and person. The person who lives unto himself, totally existentialist. Without meaning, without reference to any meaning.

And it was interesting on this trip to see how deeply existential so many of the students and faculties are. If they’re not marxist, which the majority are, the overwhelming majority are existentialist. And you can see they’re in hell. I saw a letter written by one professor at one of the major university to a student who was a good Christian conservative and had read my books, and he started ribbing the faculty of his department -which was political science- and very leftist marxist existential, he started calling it the political mythology department, and it began to catch on with all the students, so that all the campus the students were calling it the poly-myth department and the department men just about went berserk over that and this letter is the most insane expression of a tantrum that I have ever seen!

I asked for a copy of it and I hope I will get it, but it was really something. Yes?

[audience member speaks] [audience member is unintelligible]

Yes, in the two of his books I have read he’s demonstrating how modern man is becoming progressively without meaning. Well our time is up now, let us bow our heads for the benediction.

And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always. Amen.