Human Nature in its Fourth Estate

The Tabernacle

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Psychology

Genre: Lecture

Track: 42

Dictation Name: RR131X44

Location/Venue: ________

Year: 1960’s-1970’s.

Revelations 21 verses 1- 7.

Let us worship God. One thing I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life and behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage and He shall strengthen Thy heart. Let us pray.

Almighty God our heavenly father who hast made heaven and earth and all things therein. Who hast determined all things that come to pass and hast us according to Thy purpose and in terms of thy holy calling. We give thanks unto thee that all the days of our life are circumscribed by thy plan and thy purpose, that we live and move and have our being in thee. That thou art he who hast made us, and will care for us all the days of our life and hast prepared an eternal destiny for us. And so, in gratitude to our Father we have come into thy presence to commit ourselves afresh unto thee, to study thy word that we may be behold those things which thou wouldst have us to do. To refresh ourselves of thy spirit and to praise thee as we ought. Bless us in thy service, in Jesus name, Amen.

Our scripture is Revelations 21 verses 1 through 7 with particular emphasis upon the third verse. Revelations 21:3 in particular but we shall read 1 through 7, the tabernacle.

21 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

Two weeks ago we began our studies on the nature of man in the state of glory. We saw that emphatically work is upon man’s life in the new creation. Rev. 22 says definitely and clearly, “his servants shall serve him” so that not only is there work for us in the new creation... But that work is without the effects of sin and curse, of sin and death, of frustration! Moreover as we saw last week, the tree of life is portrayed symbolically in such a way as to indicate that in the new creation potentiality and actuality are one. The tree of life is portrayed both as an individual tree and as a forest. It is perpetually blossoming and simultaneously bearing fruit, which signifies that promise and fulfillment, potentiality and actuality are one. Thus we not only have work to do in the new creation, but that work is a work which is totally, and fully, perfectly expressive of our abilities and talents. So that, as I said, there will be relatively few harvest in the new creation because there are relatively few in this world...

But they shall be perfect. If we have a good voice now, we shall have a perfect voice then. And every potentiality, all those talents which we are now seeking to express, or in some cases have not really discovered them in ourselves will find full and perfect expression throughout all eternity.

Now turning this week to the subject of the tabernacle which is very closely related to what we have studies the past two weeks. We must note that one of the difficulties in dealing with this subject, the state of glory, of man’s life in the new creation is not only that we are unable to imagine it in spite of the statements in scripture concerning it... but also the tired men project their weariness into the future! We have all again, and again, told ourselves when I get this or that thing done I’m going to rest, and I’m going to take a break. But when we do it, the very fact of succeeding in doing it revitalizes us to work all the harder. We are refreshed by success, as much as anything.

We thus have a habit of projecting our weariness of this world and the problems in it onto the new creation. Now the new creation is portrayed for us in terms that for us seem contradictory. We are both told that it is the eternal Sabbath of man, and Sabbath literally means peace and rest. But we are also told it is the place of eternal work! That his servants shall serve him throughout all eternity. It is both these things. Because when man fully expresses himself he finds his perfect peace, and perfect rest, in that full expression of his being.

There is no greater peace and joy then to do something and to do it well. And this is our life in the new creation! Revelations 21 tells us that “I John, saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea.” Very clearly there is a new creation, the sea, the symbol of trouble and of storm is not a part of the new creation. That is, insofar as it’s symbolic nature is concerned. Now as we analyze the significance of the newness of that new creation, we must recognize that there are many who believe, especially the premillennialists and the dispensationalists, that this is a totally new universe. Without any relationship to the present one. This was the Jewish believe, and we find it echoed in many passages of the Apocrypha. For example, in I Enoch and II Esdra’s we find the idea very plainly very emphatically expressed that this present creation is totally destroyed and the new creation is totally new. But, very clearly as I pointed out last week, we are told here that this is a new creation not Neos, which means new in science, totally absolutely new.

But new in the sense of Kainos. The word that is used for both heaven and earth. Kainos means not newly born but new in quality, new in nature, renewed, remade. So that the new creation has a definite continuity with the present one. Although totally remade. Both heaven and earth have a history, they were created by God. Bothe are destined to be renewed... this means that God does not despise his original creation! Although he purges it by fire.

Now the verse used by those who speak of the total destruction of the existing creation is 2’nd John 3:12. This verse is deceptive, because while it speaks of it being absolved by fire and a new creation emerging, the word that is used for new there is again KINOS in the Greek, not neos. So, it is not something new it is something renewed. Remade, refashioned. Thus it is a destruction of one aspect but a continuation of a basic reality.

Doctor Schilder, one of the great commentators of the church, has seen the implication of this fact and he has commented, and I quote. “Therefore it will not do to say those things which are passing away have only relative worth. That is the things of this creation, and only that which remains has absolute worth. That which passes by and perishes is included in God’s decree, and hence has equal value with that which remains, which is established by his decree. All has worth in history, and therefore for eternity. All that is in accordance with the will of God. Heaven has great worth, but the earth of today also. Heaven of the future has great worth, but heaven of today, no less. Because God works in history the embryo is equal in worth with the mature body. The corpse with a healthy body, for in all he attains his purpose, whether his word calls a thing into being or calls it to return to dust it matters not. By that word all of history has its value.”

In other words, nothing happens without a purpose, and the purpose in everything is fulfilled in the new creation. In two verses we have a glimpse of that new creation. Revelations 21:3 which we read, “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, ‘Behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people. God himself shall be with them and be their God.” and verse 22 of the same chapter “And I saw no temple therein. For the Lord God Almighty in the land are the temple of it.”

Very clearly these verses declare that communion with God will be a full and glorious one the new creation surpassing that of the Garden of Eden. God is with men, he will dwell with them. God himself shall be with them. These statements are emphatically made in the third verse. Thus the essence of the new creation is this full communion with God. But there’s another very important aspect that is brought out in the references to the tabernacle and the temple. As we look at the new creation from the perspective of this world, we see it as the end of the journey. So that as we look at the new creation we feel like Israel in the wilderness. And that comparison is made in the Bible, in the book of Hebrews for example, and elsewhere. We are on a journey, on a pilgrimage to the new creation, which is in effect not only the terminal point but the fixed habitation. Home.

Now, during Israel’s wilderness journey, the throne room of God and the center of the nation was the tabernacle the place of worship and the place of government. And it was in the center of the camp. Tabernacle is simply another word for tent, and the tabernacle is a very costly a very ornate tent. When they reached the promised land in due time when they had a capital, Jerusalem, the tabernacle gave way to the temple. The temple was a permanent dwelling, it was a house. The word for temple in Hebrew is literally, house. The house of God. His palace, His throne room. However, we are told very emphatically that there shall be no temple in the new creation. That the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. But, we have a new figure we introduce... the tabernacle. Now this is startling!

We would think of the new creation as the terminal point, and indeed we are told from the perspective of earth it is. But the minute we enter into the new creation we are told no, this is not the terminal point, this is another beginning. One which is in beginning and in process all perfection. Potentiality and actuality are in that new creation, one. But the temple disappears in the new creation, and the tabernacle returns. As a symbol of the royal tent for life on the march! This is the framework of the tabernacle. A journey, a pilgrimage, a march, the tabernacle, the tent which was made to be moved from place to place, not to stand still. Something to be constantly moved, not to stand still. Something to be constantly moved from there to there to there, on a journey.

Now the use of so important and telling a symbol is not accidental. What is clearly means together with the image and “His servants shall serve Him” is that in the new creation a whole new horizon of work, of dominion of movement, will be opened up to man. It will be movement, it will be work, it will be dominion without the curse, and without death. Our Lord very clearly stated this. Did he not say in the parable of the talents, that those who use their talents well in this work will be rewarded with greater authority and greater opportunity to use them in the world to come. Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Be thou ruler over ten cities. Well done thou good and faithful servant, be thou ruler of five cities. Very clearly our Lord’s parable which is a parable of judgement was that those who in this world have used their talents wisely and developed them, will have all the greater opportunity to use them in the world to come. Greater authority, greater dimensions for the development of their potentiality.

You see, our idea of the world to come, of the new creation, has been molded by pagan rather than biblical sources. In paganism, the other world is spoken of as the afterlife, and that expression is creeping back into our language. It’s a very telling one. What does is mean? Just exactly what is says: after-life. Real life was really here, and the world to come in paganism is a afterlife, you’re just barely alive, and in many languages as among the Romans and the Greeks and others the word for those who were departed was ‘shades’.

They were shadows of themselves. Their life was not a real life, but a vain longing for this world. And as a result, all over the world, among pagans, there is this fear of the dead. Now some years  ago, when ethnic jokes were more common, you would hear a great many jokes about negroes and graveyards and the like! Now such jokes were based on fact, because of their background of African paganism the fear of the dead was tremendous among them, and still is. And I’ve talked to people who’ve lived in different parts of the world, and they’ve found that among pagans, whether it’s among the Chinese or anyone else, anywhere in the world, the fear of the dead was a tremendous thing.

I lived among Indian’s for eight and a half years on an Indian reservation, and no matter how much they loved someone, the minute he was dead he was an enemy! Because from that moment on, as a pale wane spirit

in the afterlife, he was jealous of the ones he loved most in this world. Jealous of the privilege they had of being truly alive and therefore he would be an enemy. And thus it was that the minute the person died he was hastily moved out of the house and into a tent nearby, and branches of rose bushes were spread over the body to keep the spirits from crawling out and going after his relatives. He was someone to be afraid of.

This we find everywhere. A ghost dreaded in antiquity, dreaded in paganism, ghosts living a pale shadowy life and being and resenting the living as the fortunate one. The life of ghouls everywhere portrayed as static pointless functionless. And as a result, the terror of the dead by pagans. This is not biblical.

We are told that the world to come is a more abundant life in Christ. That when we become Christians we have this more abundant life here and now, and that it grows throughout all eternity. The Bible makes it emphatic that there is a consistently in the purpose of God. A magnificent destiny for man, that man created to serve and glorify God in this world, will do it throughout eternity to the fullness of his ability. Rejoicing in having the full self-expression, of having a purpose and a meaning to life throughout all eternity and a full bodied life. Very simply put, in God’s glorious creation very clearly the best is yet to come. Let us pray.

Almighty God our heavenly Father who of thy grace and mercy hast made us for thy person and for thy Glory. And hast given us such great promises concerning time and eternity, we thank thee that thou hast made us to serve thee. That every talent in us will only be glorified and used for ever and ever. We rejoice  our father in Thy sovereignty. We thank thee that every hidden talent everything in us that speaks expression shall find it’s full expression in Thee. O Lord our God how great Thou art and we praise thee, in Jesus name, Amen.

Are there any questions now, first of all in respect to our lesson.

Yes?

[audience member speaks unintelligibly]

Yes. The question was, is there a difference between the terms heaven and the new creation. First of all heaven is a created place, just as this world that we’re living in is created, so heaven  is created at the beginning of time by God. Heaven is the place where those who die in Christ go immediately to be with him. The new creation is that place which is the end of time is the recreation of Heaven and earth where we put on a new and a glorified body, a perfect body, and dwell eternally. This is the distinction.

[audience member speaks unintelligibly]

Right. Those who die now go directly to heaven or to hell as the case may be, and the new creation puts of the resurrected body.

Yes?

[audience member speaks unintelligibly]

Yes. There are distinctions made in hell, because one is physical and the other is a spiritual world. Basically hell has to be defined as total separation from God throughout all eternity, so that the images that are given to us of hell are a deveined to convey them. The symbols for example of fire and of the worm, gnawing, pangs of conscious. Of total isolation, no community in hell, heaven and the new creation are perfect community, but the person who is in hell isolates himself totally from God and man and lives entirely unto himself. So that it is the fulfillment of the direction of his life, total self absorption, he becomes his own universe. In other words, hell is the perfection of existential philosophy.

Yes?

Mhm. Well, in that case you would have to say that God is forcing on to people what they do not want, and the world is a perfect world and C.S. Lewis, who wrote the Screwtape Letters and a number of other works said the difference between heaven and hell was simply this: “Heaven was the habitation of those who said to God, Thy will be done, and hell was the habitation of those to whom God said, Thy will be done.” It’s that simple. And you cannot force people to be something else, and those who are in hell are those who want this total existential isolation. They want to be their own universe! And there are many such people, and the last thing they want is to be shaken out of their total isolation, their total self-existence, they want to live to himself and if there is anyone in their world he is to be their creature and they are to be his God.

So God says “Alright, there you are. You have your universe throughout all eternity. Thy will be done.”

[audience member speaks unintelligibly]

Yes, In the pagan world, the only area where you’ll find any care of bodies was among those people who had ancestor worship. Where you had ancestor worship there was a care of bodies, there was a fear of the bodies, but there was a care of bodies because mother and dad, a grandfather and grandmother were now God’s and had to be worshipped. You might prefer them dead, but you still went through the forms of respect for them. Apart from ancestor worship there was a distaste for the body of the dead, They would dispose of them as quickly as possible. They were to be out of sight and out of mind, and the body would be hastily buried or burned or in one way or another be disposed of.

It was only among Christians in the early church and to a degree among believers of the old Testament era. If there was any respect for the bodies of the dead and the feeling that the graveyard was not a bad place or a terrifying place but a place to do honor to those whom you loved. As a result very quickly graveyards became a place where people would gather together to do honor to those who departed and to take care of their bodies, and made it clear that to them it was not a place of terror. Very quickly too, in the early centuries the church yard became the graveyard, people felt entirely at home there, to go and picnic in the churchyard, and so on. A feeling of peace with the dead, of joy in that which was their destiny.

Now, because people felt obligated to break with the Christian traditions although they are, but also in that people who’ve had a guilty conscience about their loved ones have been suckers for overdoing it with expenses at burial. This is a very common factor, and the idea that mortuaries are exploiting is here ridiculous. I have been involved in maybe six-seven hundred funerals, and no mortuary -ohh, you once in a while run into a bad one-- have to oversell people, the people are anxious to overdo it, especially if they have a guilty conscious toward the dead.

Now what is developing is a again a pagan attitude, to get rid of the dead. Death is the last thing that people want to talk about or deal with, because again the pagan terror is beginning to reassert itself. You have the rise of occultism, and with the rise of occultism again an expiration into the other world. And on the heels of it arrived the terror among many of these who have explored it, so that we are in a period of revival of paganism. A very, very marked revival of it.

[audience member speaks unintelligibly]

No, it’s a different kind of attitude, but it is of course pagan. The idea of reincarnation is a part of the ancient Hindu philosophy saying that the world is meaningless and it’s an endless cycle of repetitive, purposeless, pointless, repetition. And with Nietzsche, this idea of eternal recurrence was reintroduced, chovenhour[?] and Nietzsche, radical testament, both ultimately. It was reintroduced into the world, and it has become very, very prominent again. but it is ultimately a concept of meaningless, pointlessness. Yes?

[audience member speaks unintelligibly]

Very good point, yes there is. In that in our personal regeneration we are the same man but we have a new heart, we are now serving Christ rather than ourselves. And similarly in the new creation it is far more total kind of remaking of things physical and spiritual but it is again a regeneration of all things. And that word is literally used, a regeneration of all things. To describe in this creation. Yes?

[audience member speaks unintelligibly]

Yes, a very good question. The relationship of this new creation to the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is the rule, the total authority of God, and the kingdom of God exists here and now wherever we serve God. It exists here in midst, in our homes, in our personal lives, and we are to work, even as we pray to usher in that kingdom in our midst, in our communities, in our work, in our organizations, in our nations. The fullness of that kingdom comes with the new creation. There you have the perfect total kingdom of God. Yes?

[audience member speaks unintelligibly]

Well, a minor, very minor one. Basically it isn’t that cremation is bad, although cremation is originally is pagan and cremation is in origin pagan and is a hatred of the body really, rather than a respect for it. Now I wouldn’t say that’s the case always now, but there is that same kind of thing coming back again. I’d rather wait before going into that because a week from Wednesday, let me make an announcement now: This Wednesday we will conclude our series in World History, our seminar, we’ve had the last twelve weeks, and a week from Wednesday and we needed to {?} we shall begin our series on the effect of Neo-Platonism on Christianity and the effect it has had. Neo-Platonism had a real horror of the body, people who think the Greek idolize the body but this is quite wrong.

The effect of Neo-Platonism on Christianity has been a very unhappy one and we will examine exactly what that has meant, and its implications, for example in our worlds today the hippies are Neo-Platonists, the Marxists are Neo-Platonists, and I think it’ll help us  to see the issues in our world today much more clearly so there’s so much I would have to explain that I will be doing a beginning next week Wednesday night for two or three successive weeks, that I’d like to defer further answer until then.

Yes?

[audience member speaks unintelligibly]

At our Lord’s resurrection it was the beginning of the new creation, and he we are told, was the first fruits of that, the beginning of the new creation of God. And every one of us are members ofthe kingdom of God and citizens of that new creation. We become fully members of and in that new creation in the world to come, so that we are both in it but not totally there. We are on a pilgrimage as it were. It’s here and now and wherever we are we have as it were extraterritorial rights, whatever we are whatever we do becomes a part of the kingdom. It’s alien ground in America belongs to the kingdom of God, and the goal of course is to make our nations our communities, our enterprises aspects of the kingdom.

Any other questions? Yes?

[audience member speaks unintelligibly]

No, Satan is a creature. And while he is in some respects a more capable creature than all the rest of us he is still a creature and he has no powers that are comparable to the powers of God. He can no more read your mind than your husband can. Now, your husband can perhaps to a degree, but he can’t get inside your mind you see.

We will be touching on the subject of demons on a later point, and I will be in the next Chalcedon Report dealing in part with the subject of the meaning of demons. The word comes from the Greek and it’s a very interesting point, and it leads us to some very surprising byways as to its meaning. Yes?

[audience member speaks unintelligibly]

Yes. Well there’s certainly a barrier between those who are in heaven in this world, the kind of contacts that do exist if they are valid and I would be inclined to say that it’s possible that they are demonic on the whole. Yes?

[audience member speaks unintelligibly]

They are not made knowledgeable of what goes on here, because it certainly would be a limit to your joy in heaven if you could see some of the mistakes your loved ones are making. yes. There was an item -- yes?

[audience member speaks unintelligibly]

I think it was just opened there because it’s somewhere near the middle of the Bible. [general laughter] Mhm. Yes. Just one item before we are adjourned, there was an interesting column this morning in the paper, Victor Resels column, about the Welfare Medicaid Medicare swindle. And that’s the word he uses. And he describes the billions, not millions, billions of dollars being stolen or lost in this gargantuan Welfare Medicaid Medicare public charity conglomerate. Are he says of the whole thing, there are more rackets here than Hannibal had elephants! Some transportation companies built for trips not made by elderly Medicaid clients, some dentist pulled teeth which should not have been touched, nursing homes built cities for patients long dead, dependant children are exchanged or borrowed to build up the relief check. Grants are taken for furniture never bought, checks are ground out by computers to ghost clients that are cashed by wraiths with no known address of their own.

Cases which should be recertified every six months go uncertified for two years or more. Relief centers gave out emergency money when clients crash into centers at 4:45am screaming they need it. But you’ve got to see the records to believe it. There’s a women in Cambridge Massachusetts who though on relief put down payments on two duplex homes worth seventy-eight thousand dollars. There’s a New York client who got almost two thousand in December, 1970, says Inspector Jennifer Belanger. She was drawing money from two husbands for herself and three children got twelve-hundred and eighty dollars for a hotel and restaurant allowances though she never reported to the hotel and her whereabouts that month are not known. She was also issued four-hundred and fifteen dollars for storage fees and one-hundred and seventy for moving expenses, and she got substantial additional funds for childcare without verification. And no effort was made to redetermine eligibility.

And there was a lady who was drawing welfare money claiming her husband had deserted her, he hadn’t he lived right there. He earned about one hundred and seventy weekly and drove a 1971 Mercury. The welfare inspector general and deputy under secretary Richard Maybury hesitates to talk of fraud. “To prove this one must prove intent.” And that’s the sentence I wanted you to catch, because you remember when we discussing biblical law about a year and a half ago, we pointed out that biblical law requires the judgement be in terms of act, not intent. Nothing about the mind, so that you don’t say, well not guilty on ground of temporary insanity, or not guilty of fraud because we having proven fraud in the mind. If the act is fraudulent in its commission and its fraud, but the law now reaching into the minds of man to determine things in terms of the mind is breaking down.

It is a swindle, but the possibility of conviction is next to nothing, the convictions that are gained in the local courts are overturned because to prove fraud one must prove intent. And how are you going to get into the mind of the person to prove fraud? What you would have to prove is that the person deliberately conspired and made it clear they were going down to steal money from welfare Medicare Medicaid. They can simply say, well, I thought I was entitled to it, and that’s all that can be said. Yes?

[audience member speaks unintelligibly]

One announcement before we adjourn, to Chalcedon Guild members, there will be a meeting on Jan 19, at the home of Mrs. Jackson, on [gives address], at 10:30am the board will meet, at twelve noon the fellowship hour (and bring your own lunches) and at 1:00pm a business meeting to plan the spring program of activity and to revise by laws and proceed.

[audience member speaks unintelligibly]

Oh yes! You go ahead and make that announcement.

[audience member speaks unintelligibly]

It’s saturday the 22’nd at the Kirsten home, I believe the time was 7:30, and the 5 points of Calvinism will be discussed. Let’s bow our heads now 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.

[audio recording ends]