Salvation and Godly Rule

Faith

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Faith

Lesson: Mercy

Genre: Speech

Track: 58

Dictation Name: RR136AE58

Location/Venue:

Year: 1960’s-1970’s

Our scripture lesson is from the Gospel According to St. Luke 18:1-8, and our subject: Faith. “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: and there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”

There is much that can be said concerning faith. Our concern this morning is limited to the relationship of faith to salvation and to law.

The past two weeks, we have been analyzing the significance of justice and mercy to law. Our Lord, in Matthew 23:23 declared that the weightier matters of the law were justice, mercy, and faith, and people are not accustomed to thinking of mercy and faith, as we have seen, as matters of law. In fact, not too many months ago when I was on a trip and had been doing some preliminary studying for this particular passage, I mentioned it to someone and they were incredulous and said, “There is nothing like that in the Bible. Our Lord never spoke of faith and mercy as matters of law,” and they looked again and again at Matthew 23:23 with something of a shock to realize it was actually in scripture. Well, as a matter of fact, the parable that we have just read as our lesson deals with the same subject as we shall see.

Now we saw the last two weeks that law of justice and mercy, like salvation, have as their basic impetus and function, restitution and restoration. Their purpose is to restore all things to the original righteousness with which God created all things and to develop them in terms of that righteousness.

Now, as we analyze faith and its relationship to the law, and to justice and mercy, to restitution and to restoration, it is important for us, first of all, to recognize that much has been said in the past about faith by various commentators and clergymen which is true, and yet false, because truth, isolated from its context, can become false. Thus, Machen, in his book What is Faith? wrote, “The reading of selected passages from the Bible, in which Jews and Catholics and Protestants and others can presumably agree should not be encouraged (that is, in the public schools) and still {?} should be required by law. The real center of the Bible is redemption, and to create the impression that other things in the Bible contain any hope for humanity apart from that is to contradict the Bible at its root. Even the best of books, if it is presented in a garbled form, may be made to say the exact opposite of what it means.”

Now, Machen was quite right here, and this is why, when we analyze faith, it is important for us to analyze it in terms of what our Lord says about it, because too often when we get it in any other context, what is said may be true, but it still misrepresents what faith it. The central context of faith is redemption. Redemption, however, must be seen as total. It is the restoration of all things. It is the salvation of all things in terms of God’s total purpose, which culminates in a new heaven and a new earth. It means the restitution and restoration of all things through Christ to their original righteousness and purpose, so that in terms of God’s creation mandate, all things are brought to their fulfillment and development in Christ, and magnify and glorify God forever.

Now concerning faith, we are told that God, having revealed his purposes to Abraham, Abraham believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness. This is in Genesis 15:6. The word “believed” in the Hebrew has a meaning that the English word does not convey. The Hebrew word is the same word as what we have in “Amen,” so what scripture is here saying is that Abraham said “Amen” to God, and he counted it to him for righteousness. This is why, as scripture emphasizes, faith cannot be separated from works, or Paul uses not the term “works,” but fruits of the Spirit, whereas James uses “works,” because it is saying “Amen” to God. This is what believing in the Lord means, what faith means, not only with our mind but with all our being. Not only in terms of ideas but in terms of action. It is to say “amen” to God with our total life.

Now, Abraham said “amen” to God’s declared purpose with all his being and his works, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. God had told him what he required of him, and it also declared that his seed should be as the stars numerous and that the earth would be filled with his seed, and Abraham, having no visible sign that this would be so, being {?}, said “amen” to God.

In the New Testament, faith is saying “amen” to Christ, to his salvation, to his work. It is accepting the verdict of death upon us, and Christ is our vicarious substitute. It means the response of gratitude and the obedience of faith.

Now, as we examine more specifically the relationship of faith to law, as declared by our Lord in Matthew 23:23, let us see what our Lord says about it in this parable, but before we do, let us examine the Westminster Shorter Catechism and the larger catechism on faith.

“What is faith in Jesus Christ? Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation as he has offered to us in the gospel.”

“How doth faith justify a sinner in the sight of God? Faith justifies a sinner in the sight of God, not because of those other graces which do always accompany it, or of good works that are the fruits of it, nor as if the gift of grace of faith or any act thereof were imputed to him for justification, but only as it is an instrument by which he receiveth and applieth Christ and his righteousness.”

Now, very clearly it is set forth as grace, the grace of faith is the term the catechism uses. Now, how can this grace of faith be identified? How is it manifested? This is what our Lord is dealing with in this parable. As we examine this parable, and that’s the place to start is with the last verse, because for the past century, that last verse, especially the last sentence, has been so extensively misinterpreted. “Nevertheless when the son of man cometh, shall he find faith upon the earth.” The Puritans, as they interpreted this passage, recognized the meaning thereof, but in recent years, this has been interpreted to mean two things: First, that at the end of the world when Christ comes, will he find faith on the earth, and that he’s not going to find very much. So the future of Christianity is presented as very bleak, that there is going to be a great falling away and Christ is going to come and find practically nothing.

Now, a verse without a context is a pretext. Our Lord, in the passage just preceding this in the previous chapter, spoke of his coming in judgment on Jerusalem, and when we go through scripture, we find that the day of the Lord, and the coming of the Lord, and the coming in the clouds refers not simply to the last judgment in the end of the world, but to every coming in judgment in every age. So, our Lord has just been talking to them about coming in judgment on Jerusalem, and so what he is, in effect, saying, is that this is a test question for every one of them. There is going to be a tremendous disaster in the immediate future. Jerusalem, the city they love, is going to be destroyed. What kind of faith is he going to find in them when he comes? What kind of stand are they going to make? As Hulse{?} has pointed out, “Jesus then continues to encourage his disciples to pray and uses the parable of the widow on the unjust judge to describe the kind of faith he requires. She did not despair. She kept persevering until her petition was answered. Now, whenever Jesus comes, whether in judgment on a nation or at the end of the world, will he find faith of this character? Will he find faith like that of the widow who persevered? This question, will he find faith? is calculated to stir up self-examination. If he suddenly comes to call me into his presence, will I have faith? True persevering faith? That is a question you and I must answer without delay.

Thus, the question is not one of cynicism. Our Lord is not saying, “I’m not going to find any faith because there is going to be a great falling away and my church will have perished, and then I will come.” Instead, our Lord makes it clear that here is a test for what constitutes faith, and this parable was designed to give them grounds for seeing, as they faced the days ahead, as they came to the crisis, the Fall of Jerusalem, and we could say of ourselves as we come to the crisis ahead when we have economic collapse and much more. Our Lord is going to say to us, through this parable, “Do you have faith? The kind of faith I’m taking about, the grace of faith?”

Now, let’s examine this parable without the rubbage in our minds that the modern church has taught us concerning it. Let us see what our Lord is saying, not what the modern church has said, because what our Lord says here is something radically different than what is taught about this parable. In fact, this is one of the most misinterpreted passages of the New Testament. What our Lord here declares is as post-millennial (to use the modern term) a statement as you can find in scripture, and there’s some remarkable ones. Statements that nations shall not make war anymore, that the very weapons of warfare will disappear, and yet, glorious as those statements are, and the statements concerning the fact that if a man dies at 100, he will be accounted to have died young in the latter days. This is stronger.

Now, the faith that here is manifested in the widow is a victorious, a triumphant faith. If you looked this parable up, by the way, in encyclopedias of scripture or commentaries, it is called the parable of the unjust judge, or the parable of the unrighteous judge, which puts the emphasis in the wrong place. The center here is the widow and her triumphant faith. Now our Lord says, “Here is a widow with faith. What does she do? She has been defrauded, in terms of the law,” and he’s talking about Israel, the chosen people. In other words, the biblical law, she goes and demands restitution and this is the meaning of avenge, the biblical meaning. In fact, it’s still the meaning that the Encyclopedia Judaica gives to the meaning of the work as it analyzes scripture. She has been defrauded. Her estate perhaps, or whatever it was, has been taken from her. She’s been robbed, and so she says, “Avenge me of my adversary to an unjust judge, a scoundrel. Give me restitution. I want what is mine. I want it back.” Now, that’s what the widow is asking for, and the judge would not {?}. But afterward he said within himself, “Thou I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow troubled me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.” Now this woman was nagging the judge. Every opportunity she could get, she was hounding him. This was the point our Lord makes, because he begins in the first verse. Men are always to pray and not to think, and the word “always” is incessantly. God is saying, “Nag God.” Now that’s what the Lord himself was asking us. If you really are interested in what you want, nag God. Prove that you really are concerned about it, and it isn’t like a child who sees something and wants it, and then forgets about it. It isn’t important to them. If something is important to you, you’re going to be concerned with it continually and this widow was. “Avenge me of mine adversary.” She nagged that judge. She dogged his steps. She filed every kind of petition. Every time she turned around, no doubt she had somebody trying to intercede with that judge, pulling wires to make him do something, and so finally, to get rid of her, the judge did something. He avenged her. She got her estate or whatever it was back. Restitution was made. Now this is what Christ says. “Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith (like this widow) on the earth?”

Now this parable is a stinging rebuke of all weak faith that does not work for and expect victory. What insanity is it when the church turns this into a parable that it’s going to be a great falling away and there’s not going to be anything at the end, and the Lord isn’t going to find any faith when he comes? Why, that’s turning the parable upside down. It is destroying the meaning. Our Lord says, “This is faith. Are you going to show it when Jerusalem falls? Are you going to show it when everything you believe and work for as husbands and fathers, or women, disappeared? Are you going to expect victory and demand it?” Mofat’s rendering of this latter portion brings out this stinging indictment of all weak faith that does not work for and expect victory very clearly. He renders it, “Listen, says the Lord to what this unjust says, and will not God seek justice done to his elect who cry to him by day and night? Will he be tolerant to their opponents? I tell you he will quickly see justice done to his elect.”

Now, to take the obvious meaning of this parable and to turn it upside down into a council of defeatism is blasphemy. If God is a just judge, and an unjust judge on occasion can grant justice, how much more so the righteous judge who is judge over all? This is the faith, it’s called for.

More specifically, in the eighth verse reads, “Shall we find the faith on the earth?” The faith. Now faith here means in Christ, as the savior, able to deliver as the righteous judge. That’s the whole point of the parable. If the unjust judge can grant restitution, how much more so the righteous judge the son of man? So, when I come will I find that you have this kind of faith in me, even in the time of disaster and trouble? In other words, our Lord as the supreme law-giver and judge, is saying that faith in him means faith that he is the law-giver and the judge, will see to it that his law is kept and his justice fulfilled. The widow was not resigned to injustice. Neither must we be. He is our avenger. As Hebrew 11:6 declares, “Without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

The point of this prayer? We are always to pray and not to faint. We must, like the widow, our Lord said, refuse to accept injustice as the governing reality, but must appeal to Christ as the king and judge as the governing reality. The widow prayed incessantly and triumphed with an unjust judge. How much more are we likely to triumph with the just judge who is Lord over all? Justice, mercy, and faith, our Lord said, are the weightier matters of the law. They are essential to it. If they are not so related, they are not justice, mercy, nor faith, and so when our Lord asks, “When I come, will I find faith on the earth?” this is what he means. Will I find faith that there is indeed justice with me. Do you only believe that I’m going to snatch you up into heaven, rapture you out of this world, or do you believe that I am the righteous judge and if you appeal to me like this widow, you will get justice? That is faith. This is why faith, our Lord declared, is a weightier matter of the law. The whole of scripture, law and gospel, is a seamless garment. Let us pray.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we rejoice in thy word, and we thank thee that thou art the righteous judge of all to whom we can appeal. O Lord, our God, forgive us for our lack of faith, for our unwillingness so often to pray and our {?} nation to evil, and our readiness to accept the waves of unrighteousness rather than appealing to thy justice. Give us, O Lord, in ever increasing measure, the grace of faith. Lord, we believe, help thou our unbelief. In Jesus name. Amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Audience] In Mark{?} where it talks about the early church, you know, where they had all things in common, everybody put there, I’m not sure about that, I’ve talked to people, you know, about capitalism being a godly system {?} and so on, and I believe they quote that example where Christians were {?} they didn’t have private property.

[Rushdoony] Yes, except that it’s not true. That’s not what it says. Now, first of all, only one place in Jerusalem do you find this, no where else. You don’t find that this is said about the church in Samaria or in Corinth, or in Rome, or in the Galatian church, or anywhere else. Just in Jerusalem. Second, it was not required of the church members that they do this. Some did, some didn’t. That appears very clearly in what St. Peter says to Ananias and his wife. Third, the whole point in Jerusalem was that our Lord had declared, in Matthew 24, that Jerusalem would be destroyed. Not one stone left standing on another. The disciples and the Christians believed that what our Lord said was true. Our text that we read was a statement made just after he told them about the destruction of Jerusalem. Now, under those circumstances, you certainly were not going to invest in real estate in Jerusalem. So, what the Christians did was to sell, and either get out of stay on as missionaries. We know they scattered quite extensively, and then, many of those who stayed, especially the wealthier members, put the income into a common pool for missionary work there in Jerusalem, to try to convert as many of their friends and relatives as possible before the end. Not a single person died in the siege of Jerusalem who was a Christian because they had heeded our Lord’s warning. They didn’t lose any property either. They had sold out. Now, that’s the meaning of it. No where else was there ever anything like this. It was only in Jerusalem because of the special circumstances in Jerusalem. Any other questions? Yes?

[Audience] In this, {?} the history, the history of the Constitution. That obviously seem to say that the pilgrims {?} contributed more towards the spirit of Christianity in America {?} colony in Massachusetts.

[Rushdoony] I’m not familiar with the statement that’s made there. The pilgrim community was actually quite a small one, and had a very modest influence. I’d have to see precisely what is said in that statement before I could criticize it. Now perhaps it was some things in the pilgrim community that all of them shared, but I would hesitate to say. Now there were possibly some Wycliffe like influences in the pilgrim community that had a profound influence, because the influence of the Wycliffe ideas in America has never been properly assessed, and it was very great. So I’d have to know more about the background of their statement. Any other questions?

Well, I’d like to share with you a few passages from a book which just arrived yesterday and delighted me to no end. It’s Noah Webster’s History of the United States. It was a textbook for Christian schools, and that’s the only kind there were at that time, the he wrote. We don’t usually realize this nor are we commonly told it, but Noah Webster was a very staunch Christian and a Calvinist. Incidentally, another book of his essays which I have at home, in 1794, he predicted the course of European history, as a Christian, in terms of what was happening in France very, very clearly. Now, the thing that delighted me in this history which goes through the establishment of the Constitution and the presidency of Washington. It begins, although it’s a history of the United States, and that’s the title of it. It begins, the chapter 1, is Origin of the Human Race, Section 1 of the First Man. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the sun, moon, and stars. He created also grass, and other plants; and various animals for the use of man. And last of all he created the first man, called Adam, endowed him with rational faculties, and gave him dominion over the earth, and over the beasts of the field, the fishes of the sea, and fowls of the air.” [

And he goes on through the first chapter to give the biblical background, and the history of the world is set in the whole of American history, in the context of God’s creation and world history. Then, when he concludes the book, which is with the Constitution and then with some geography about the United States, which is the next to the last chapter, he has his last section of the paragraph of that chapter on persons and character of the inhabitants of the northern states, and he says in the concluding part of it, “The vices of drunkenness, tippling, gambling, trickishness in mutual dealings, profanity and the like, are found among the more corrupt members of the community. But the great body of the people, who are freeholders, with estates in fee which furnish them with means of subsistence, maintain the character of good sense, discernment and pure morals; living in the constant attendance upon religious worship, and adorning their profession as Christians, by a correspondent practice.” Then, the last chapter, chapter 19, The Appendix to the book, is the Farewell Address of Washington. Chapter 19 is Advice to the Young, and so he tells the students that they are to honor their father and mother, and to obey God, and to delight themselves in his holy word, and so on, and he goes through to give them counsel as to how to be godly citizens, and it’s very, very moving, because it is so intensely and zealously Christian. He counsels them to be good church members, staunch believers in all things, and the concluding paragraph of his history:

“For instruction then in social, religious, and civil duties, resort to the scriptures for the best precepts and most excellent examples for imitation. The example of unhesitating faith and obedience in Abraham, when he promptly prepared to offer his son Isaac, as a burnt offering, at the command of God, is a perfect model of that trust in God which becomes dependent beings. The history of Joseph furnishes one of the most charming examples of fraternal affection, and of filial duty and respect for a venerable father, ever exhibited in human life. Christ and his apostles presented, in their lives, the most perfect example of disinterested benevolence, unaffected kindness, humility, patience in adversity, forgiveness of injuries, love to God and to all mankind. If men would universally cultivate these religious affections and virtuous dispositions, with as much diligence as they cultivate human science and refinement of manners, the world would soon become a terrestrial paradise.”

The book is very well written. Every chapter ends with questions with further study, and so on, and of course, you’re all familiar with his Blue Back Speller which, for fifty years or more, taught more spelling to the youth of America than they’ve ever learned since. Now I cite this book because this was why the public schools were created. Horace Mann wanted to get rid of things like this because, as a Unitarian and essentially a statist, he wanted to destroy the kind of brainwashing, that wasn’t the term they used then, but that’s what he meant, that Noah Webster was giving to the children of America, and of course, he was right. It created a different kind of citizen when Noah Webster’s rights{?} were very thoroughly studied by all the students.

Now, yes?

[Audience] {?} supposed to be use in the schools today, or what grade?

[Rushdoony] Well, since it only goes through the Constitution, you see, it couldn’t very well be used, but we hope in the next few years, and Mr. Filburn{?} and I have discussed this, to see if we can produce some Christian textbooks that will continue in the same tradition. Now, it is interesting in one of his essays that he wrote about 1804, I believe, Noah Webster predicted that if the Christian faith of America persisted, within a century, at least 1/3 of the world, if not considerably more, would be speaking English and would be under the sway of the Gospel, and he felt therefore, it was imperative for England and America to get together on working towards that end, and he wrote to either Cambridge or Oxford to ask some of the scholars there if they would share with him a common concern. He said English can become, in a couple of centuries, the language of the world, because with the missionary impetus which we must show and which we can best show, and the fact that the English language will go with it, we can reshape the world. He was a man of very great vision. It’s amazing when you read Noah Webster’s essays to realize the discernment and the foresight that was there.

I mentioned the French Revolution when it was just beginning and the European armies were investing it, he predicted they would not win, but the French Revolution was going to create, as it were, the wave of the future, an anti-Christian wave, because they were not getting to the real heart of the matter. Noah Webster was quite a remarkable man and a very brilliant scholar, and some of you may have copies of his original dictionary because Rosalie Slater{?} and Verna Hall of the Christian History of the Constitution have reprinted it, so it is available. It is very interesting to see how his definitions of words so frequently reflect a Christian character.

Are there any other questions? Yes?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] No, I have to send to Ann Arbor to have it microfilmed and reprinted. So, that’s the only way you can get it now. However, once it’s done, successive copies are cheaper. So, I had to pay for the first one to be done. I haven’t gotten the bill yet, but this means that they already have the prints there so they can run off a second copy much more cheaply.

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] No. You just have to order it from them directly. One announcement. When I was gone a couple weeks ago, an announcement was made about starting a class on a biblical theory of knowledge. Immediately after Easter, we will begin meeting some day in the week, probably Tuesday or Thursday nights, and I’d be interested in a show of hands, how many of you would prefer who are interested in coming, Tuesday nights? How many Thursday nights? Well, we’ll make it on Thursday nights then, and we will tell you more very soon about the time and place.

Let us 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.

End of tape