Salvation and Godly Rule

The Intellect as Savior

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Doctrinal Studies

Lesson: The Intellect as Savior

Genre: Speech

Track: 15

Dictation Name: RR136H15

Location/Venue:

Year: 1960’s-1970’s

Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present, evil world. According to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Let us pray.

Glory be to thee, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, who of thy grace and mercy hast made us strong in Jesus Christ, and hast given us such gracious promises in and through Him. We gather together in thy name to rejoice in thy mercies and blessings, in the certainty of thy government and victory, and in the blessings and promises which are ours in Jesus Christ. Bless us now by thy word and by thy spirit, and grant us thy peace, victory, and joy in all things. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Our scripture lesson is from the book of the prophet Jeremiah 36:20 following, then 38:14 and following. The Intellect as Savior. First of all, Jeremiah 36:20 following. It is important for us as we read this scripture to understand something of the background. After the death of Josiah, it was very obvious that Jerusalem and Judea were doomed, and God again and again issued warnings through the prophet Jeremiah, and God told the people and the rulers that their hope was to stay out of the coming conflict between Babylon and Egypt. They were a small country. They should remain neutral, but they foolishly kept involving themselves, and Jeremiah, when Jehoiakim the king involved himself on Egypt’s side against Babylon, predicted exactly what would happen, and he set this down as a part of the book of Jeremiah, and when this was known that God had spoken through Jeremiah these things, then the king commanded that this writing be seized, and this is our first scripture.

“And they went in to the king into the court, but they laid up the roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and told all the words in the ears of the king. So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll: and he took it out of Elishama the scribe's chamber. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes which stood beside the king. Now the king sat in the winterhouse in the ninth month: and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him. And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words. Nevertheless Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll: but he would not hear them. But the king commanded Jerahmeel the son of Hammelech, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet: but the Lord hid them.

Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying, Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned. And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, Thus saith the Lord; Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast? Therefore thus saith the Lord of Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost. And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them; but they hearkened not. Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were added besides unto them many like words.”

Then next, chapter 38:14 following. In the meantime, between these chapters, all those things prophesied concerning Jehoiakim came to pass. Both he and the next king saw disaster. They saw Nebakanezzer take Jerusalem, and take some of the people into captivity, but then saith Zedekiah on the throne, as king, who was the last king of Judea, and tell him that he was not anxious to destroy the nation, but they could stay there, and pay a nominal sum of tribute to him, and have their independence if they would stay out of his battle with Egypt. He did not want a country however small with a strong fortress in the mountains to be a problem to his supply lines in his struggle with Egypt. He wanted their neutrality, but again, they had delusions of grandeur and decided they could make themselves great and powerful by playing ball with Egypt, although Egypt had an unbroken record of violating every treaty that she had made with Judea. Meanwhile, Jeremiah had been put into a dungeon in the reign of Zedekiah. These were the last days of Judah and Jerusalem.

Verse 14:38. “Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took Jeremiah the prophet unto him into the third entry that is in the house of the Lord: and the king said unto Jeremiah, I will ask thee a thing; hide nothing from me. Then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah, If I declare it unto thee, wilt thou not surely put me to death? and if I give thee counsel, wilt thou not hearken unto me? So Zedekiah the king sware secretly unto Jeremiah, saying, As the Lord liveth, that made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, neither will I give thee into the hand of these men that seek thy life.”

Now, briefly, do you see the picture? Here is the man in the dungeon, Jeremiah, and the king is sending for him to know what is going to happen. He is admitting that Jeremiah has been accurate at every point, and so there is this secret interview which he says no one else must know about.

“Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, Thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; If thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon's princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and thou shalt live, and thine house: But if thou wilt not go forth to the king of Babylon's princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand. And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, I am afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me. But Jeremiah said, They shall not deliver thee. Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the Lord, which I speak unto thee: so it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live. But if thou refuse to go forth, this is the word that the Lord hath shewed me: And, behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah's house shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes, and those women shall say, Thy friends have set thee on, and have prevailed against thee: thy feet are sunk in the mire, and they are turned away back. So they shall bring out all thy wives and thy children to the Chaldeans: and thou shalt not escape out of their hand, but shalt be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon: and thou shalt cause this city to be burned with fire. Then said Zedekiah unto Jeremiah, Let no man know of these words, and thou shalt not die. But if the princes hear that I have talked with thee, and they come unto thee, and say unto thee, Declare unto us now what thou hast said unto the king, hide it not from us, and we will not put thee to death; also what the king said unto thee: Then thou shalt say unto them, I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan's house, to die there. Then came all the princes unto Jeremiah, and asked him: and he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they left off speaking with him; for the matter was not perceived. So Jeremiah abode in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken: and he was there when Jerusalem was taken.”

In 1921, just a couple years or so after World War 1 ended, a very interesting book was published in England and then in America within a matter of months. The title was The Blas of Fashion. It was an anonymous book. It was very obviously written by a man in high places in the British government, a man who knew everybody of any significance in England and Scotland, and really in every country of any consequence. The book is a very revealing one, a very interesting one to this day. This anonymous author, in his preface to Americans said, “With you, as with us, the fashion of the daily life is set by those who have sacrificed to a false science,” (he was talking about Darwin and evolution) “almost without thought the one great secret of joy. Namely, faith in a creative purpose,” and he said, now men’s lives are governed by this lack of any faith in God, by their belief in evolution, and he went on to say, “The mob believes in Darwinian evolution, believes that the universe is an accident, life is an accident, and beauty is an accident. It has made up its mind on hearsay, and has incorporated into its moods without realization of the logical consequences, a theory of existence which is as false as it is destruction, and this mob composed of all classes, carries the destiny of the human race,” and so he said we are going to see, in the years ahead, the outworking of this false faith which, if it is not supplanted, will destroy the world.

Then, he went on to speak about the faith of modern man, that it was a return to the faith of Antiquity, and he said of pagan Antiquity, “Philosophy sought to elevate the moral character by improving the intellect. Christianity reversed the order.” Very clear, this is a most discerning con{?}. It must be recognized very plainly that pagan thought had an implicit dualism. It did believe that the body was a tainted thing, but the mind was not. Man’s reason, man’s intellect was clear, impartial, objective, god-like, able to stand apart from everything and judge everything impartially and clearly.

As a result, Greek people thought nothing of their philosophers, like Socrates, being moral degenerates, and yet pontificating on virtue, honestly, truth, justice, and so on. Well then, the redemption, the salvation of the world, was to be by the application of man’s intellect, or reason, to man’s progress. Pagan philosophy held that man’s decisions are governed by his reason so that to appeal to reason, was the decisive fact in any situation. Simply make the facts plain, and you will then change men. To enlighten man’s reason was to solve his problems.

In the book of Jeremiah, we have a telling illustration of the contrary which we have just read. Jehoiakim and his princes knew that all reason was behind Jeremiah’s statements as well as the revealed word of God. They knew that they had no chance against Nebekanazer. They knew that Egypt had never kept a treaty when it involved any sacrifice on their part. They made treaties with one idea, that the other person was to keep it to their advantage, and they were never under any obligation to keep it if it was to their disadvantage. Reason governed man. Jehoiakim and his rulers, his princes, should have known that Jeremiah was right. Was their answer a logical one? Did they say for such and such reasons it is impossible for your conclusion to be true, and the rational, the logical conclusion of an intelligent man is precisely what we are doing? No. On the contrary, they sought for Jeremiah to execute him. They seized that part of his book which he was writing, which is our book of the prophet, Jeremiah. Seized it, had it read, and expressed their contempt by deliberately, as it was being read, the king slitting each page of the scroll, and throwing it into the fire, and there were only three men of all the nobility, the cabinet, the associates of the king, who had beforehand protested and none at this time. Zedekiah, the last king, knew all these things. He never disputed a single thing that Jeremiah told him, and yet he went straight without any variation in full knowledge to the most impossible, the most illogical decision and to his ruin, to the destruction of his kingdom, of his family. Were these men, logical? Was their decision governed by reason? On the contrary, we must say that man’s reason is governed by his moral character, and men come to decisions in terms of what they are.

Some years ago, a man told me of an experience that he thought was rather strange. He spent an evening with a friend, fairly important man, telling him what the situation was in this country and what was happening, what was going on in Washington. Step by step, he demolished every argument that his friend offered. Step by step, he got him to admit that this fact, or that fact was true, and what did it add up to concerning what this country was doing, but the course of things was, in Washington, the kind of leadership, the kind of subversion that was going on, and the evening ended with the friend admitting that his conclusions held water logically. Did it change his friend? No, he never saw him again. The man’s life and his thinking was governed by his moral character and he was not about to change. Logically, he had had to admit that the opposition position was true, but like Zedekiah, he wanted no part of it.

But we must say still further that a man’s moral character is the product of still something else, his religious faith. A man’s mind is shaped by his moral character and his moral character by his faith. Now if that faith be false, there is a whole chain of deadly consequences, and of course, what we see all around us is the consequence of false faith, of humanism. Humanism undergirds every subversive, every liberal, too many conservatives, and as a result, they wind up with false conclusions. They are not governed by reason, for their reason is a reflection of their moral character, and their moral character is a reflection of their false faith.

I was reading, not too long ago, rereading a very interesting book, a classic, not read by anyone except students who were specialists in the field which is the fact about certain classics. This is a classic of humanism written by Aphra Behn. The title is Oroonoko; or the Royal Slave. Now, the dates of Aphra Behn are 1640-1689. Aphra Behn had apparently been, for awhile, in the Americas, in Surinam, in the Indies, as well as America. We don’t know much about her life. She called herself Mrs. Aphra Behn. We don’t know what her maiden name was. We don’t know whether she really had a husband. She was an agent, a spy for King Charles II, and every bit his equal in moral degeneracy. She was a very popular playwright in London. Her plays were always sensations because any play by Aphra Behn could be depended on to be depended on to be the dirtiest show in town, that was their appeal, but she was a true blue humanist.

Now, this is what she wrote about the natives of Surinam in the West Indies, the Indians there, “And these people represented to me an absolute idea of the first state of innocence, before man knew how to sin. And 'tis most evident and plain that simple Nature is the most harmless, inoffensive, and virtuous mistress. 'Tis she alone, if she were permitted, that better instructs the world than all the inventions of man. Religion (and by that she meant Christianity) would here but destroy that tranquillity they possess by ignorance; and laws would but teach 'em to know offense, of which now they have no notion. They have a native justice which knows no quarrel and they understand no vice, or cunning, but when they are taught by the white men.”

Well, her theme is a familiar one to this day. Those poor, unspoiled natives the missionaries talked about as sin.

Now, Aphra Behn knew that those natives in Surinam not only were polygamists, but they were cannibals and a great many other things, but somehow they were innocent. By definition, man before Christianity got ahold of him had to be innocent, and so she had one reason or another to say all these things were meaningless. Here were people before the Fall, and the Fall was the coming of Christianity, of biblical religion.

Thus, for her and for humanists after that, the way to attain the true man, the good man, is to peel off the layers of Christianity. The goal was thus a steady primitivism, renouncing Christian civilization, {?}, progress, everything. Innocence for them means a purgation of man from Christianity and a return to primitivism. They do not see salvation as a purgation of sin and guilt through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. Rid yourself of Christianity, of a work ethic in favor of paganism, in favor of a life beyond good and evil. This primitivism, the thinking that Aphra Behn represented in classical thought, is basic to our modern world and its views of sex, politics, art, literature, religion, education, just about everything. The religious presuppositions thus, they must be true. It is not enough to say that man’s reason, his intellect is governed by his moral character, and his moral character by religious faith. That religious faith must be grounded on truth, on Jesus Christ.

The Westminster Divines said truth is in order to goodness. That is, there can be no goodness, no good results, where there is no truth. I had a very interesting example of that principle this Thursday, when Bill Richardson called me from Sacramento, and he said he just had a very interesting experience, which had gratified him because he had reasoned in terms of Christian presuppositions and he had been right. He’s on the law enforcement committee, and he had been talking on the telephone with Chief Davis of Los Angeles, who made a remark in passing about the terrible decline everywhere in the world, in law enforcement, but he said the reports from Canada indicate that their situation is well in hand, and Bill Richardson said, “That’s not true, they cannot be. They are as bad as anywhere else.” And Davis said, “Well, how do you know that? Do you have another set of statistics?” and Bill said, “No, but I do not believe that when people apply a false faith to the area of prenology{?} they’re going to have good conclusions,” and Davis said, “Well, that’s not enough proof for me.” Richardson called up some of the men in the offices in Canada at the capitol, not the men in the public relations department or the men who issued the statistics, but the men who compiled, and they gave him a terrifying picture, and they were more than a little profane about the figures that had been issued. He added incidentally that the statistics are just as fraudulent in this country. He said in every state and nationally, their doctored statistics are routine and he said, last year on the 16,000 to 17,000 men in state prisons, almost 1,000 escaped. There was so much hue and cry over that that the state decided to do something, and this year will show a lower figure because they changed what can be classified as an escapee. If he is caught within three miles of the prison, he is not an escapee, and there are certain other qualifications whereby there will be a major drop in the number of escapees, and this is the way there is a drop in the statistics, he reported, in every area of crime. Logical? No. Man is not a logical creature. Rational? No. Why have they done this? Whether in Canada, or Europe, or the United States, and he said they’re doing it all over the world, because they begin with a false faith, and they have a false character, which leads them to work towards false, dishonest conclusions.

If truth does not undergird man’s character and mind, then h e is not only self-deceived but his ostensibly noble professions are a mask for evil. The illusion of the humanist is that because they want a world of peace, prosperity, and justice, this makes them noble. All they have to do is to get up and spout that they are for everything that is good, true, and beautiful, and somehow, that makes them good, true, and beautiful.

I have, at home, a paperback book which is a long speech by a famous European on June 1, 1938, calling for world crusade against Hitler, and how it was going to usher in a great and glorious new age of reason triumphant. At the conclusion of this speech, which was before some of the greatest political figures, literary figures, artists, wealthy and prominent people of France, the speaker, who was the vice president of the French Chamber of Deputies, concluded by saying, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I’ve just sketched before you the broad outlines of a human society which tomorrow, will be a worldwide reality. These profound transformations will be written into fact. No man will not be eternally opposed to himself. No man will not be eternally forced to waste his energy in class struggles and war. No man will not see poverty eternally rising out of abundance. No man will not be eternally a {?} man. Whatever is said, whatever is done, nothing will fault the march of history. Nothing will prevent finally the establishment of a society of harmony, of work in progress, a society born of sands{?}, if we all desire it and we all must desire it, the country of Descartes will remain the country of reason triumphant.” The name of the speaker was Jacques Dufo{?}, the top communist in France and a close associate of Stalin. Now, his conviction, that he represented the truth, was very intense. It was the logical conclusion of a false faith which produced a false character, which led to false conclusions, and his hearers, having the same background, were ready to applaud him, but this self-deception, this self-delusion, is not limited to communists.

In the past few days, there was a very interesting column, Jim Bishop’s column on Kennedy. He discussed John F. Kennedy as his friend whom he knew well, and he admitted that, as much he liked him, he could not think of him or any of the Kennedy’s as great statesmen, and he said, “People who are not willing to help further the ambitions of the Kennedy’s for nothing were criminally motivated in their eye.” There was a tremendous self-righteousness and self-delusion there. Thus, he said, the Kennedy’s were rather bewildering for him, and he concluded that John F. Kennedy, despite a greatness within him, all this spouting about peace and justice and so on, “In spite of the fact that I admired him personally, I still think of him as more of a gutter politician than a lofty statesman.” Very interesting statement, coming from a friend.

Now, John Dewey, of course, believed that intelligence was man’s savior, and he very bluntly stated that he favored the method of changing the world through intelligent action as against the method of changing the self through religion. The reason, therefore, was man’s hope for reconstruction, and against this, in history, scripture and those who have stood in terms of scripture; Augustine, Anselm, Calvin, have been the great opponents. Trust in the intellect, in reason as man’s savior means ultimately trust in some men who have superior intellects as saviors.

The great socialist who preceded Marx and for whom Marx bowed very copiously without giving credit was San-Semon, and San-Semon was very, very blunt about things that since then, they have soft-peddled. San-Semon said very plainly, “That only the small number of those who devote their lives to the investigation of social sciences will be able to analyze the dogma scientifically,” and then he went on to say very plainly, that the masses would have to accept what the social scientists said in the same way that they had been used to accepting the dogmas of Christianity, as revelation. They did not have the mind to question the scientific elite. In other words, reason and the elite were to become a new revelation and a new god, as far as San-Semon was concerned. This is why they don’t speak about San-Semon these days. He was more honest about stating these things than the modern socialists and social scientists are.

Thus, we may say, very, very plainly in terms of all of scripture, that then as now, the Jehoiakims and the Zedekiah’s of history will continue to act in terms, not of their reason, but in terms of their immoral character which, in turn, in grounded on their false faith, that man’s savior is not his intellect, but man’s only savior is the true Jesus Christ, who declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” and when man’s reason is not founded on that truth, it always adds up to a lie. When man’s character is not founded on that truth, its reasoning will be false. When man’s faith is is not founded on that truth, his character and his reasoning will be as false as his faith. “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth (and only the truth, Jesus Christ) shall make you free.” Let us pray.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we thank thee that thou hast established us, by thy grace and mercy, on Jesus Christ, the truth, and we pray, our Father, that thou wouldst make us witnesses to the truth, that we may bring all things into subjection and captivity to Jesus Christ, who is Lord of Lords, and King of Kings. In his name we pray. Amen.

We have time just for a couple of very quick questions. Yes?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] No, when men in the sciences arrive at a correction conclusion or develop something of note, it is not because of anything but that they have operated on borrowed principles. Dr. Van Til has done a great work here in showing how these men are really thieves. Thus, if in terms of their faith the chance is ultimate, they went into the laboratory and worked, they could come up with nothing, because it would be impossible for them to come up with any valid conclusion. They have no reason for assuming any consistency in the world, any law order in the world, any structure, so they can come up with a valid conclusion. As a result, when they go into the laboratory, they assume that there is gravity, that there is order, that there is purpose, there is meaning in the universe, otherwise they couldn’t operate. So they’re dishonest. They’re not working in terms of their presuppositions. They are borrowing the presuppositions of the God of scripture while they’re in the laboratory, and as long as they do, they can come up with something, but even then, they are limited.

Now, a few years ago, some of who are here heard Dr. Lamberts speak in Buena Park, and Dr. Lamberts has won over ten international prizes in genetics, and he said the reason for it was very simple. He began with the presupposition of creationism, and so he said, “I immediately had ruled out a lot of dead-ends that other geneticists spend years pursuing. I knew what was impossible and what was possible, because there was a fundamental law order in the universe as a result of God’s creation.” You can have no science on the presuppositions of atheism, so they are schizophrenic. They operate on borrowed premises. Yes?

[Audience] {?} to remove government {?}

[Rushdoony] All over the world now there are doctored statistics. They simply, for example, now what used to be a misdemeanor is no longer dealt with. What used to be called a felony is treated as a misdemeanor, and so on, and this is the kind of thing that’s leading to the announcements that supposedly, the situation has improved, and of course, this business of escapees. That, to me, is so ludicrous and yet, it’s the kind of thing that’s done every day. Yes?

[Audience] {?} a democracy or a {?}

[Rushdoony] It is both. It is a religious concept, it is a philosophy, it is a scientific concept, it’s a total concept. It applies in whatever field you’re working. It’s also a very important concept in the arts, because if you begin from a position of creationism, you definitely are going to have a very different perspective than a man who believes there is no order, no meaning, no purpose in the universe. Modern art is precisely the conclusion of an evolutionary faith. It is anti-meaning, anti-purpose throughout. Well, our time is up now. 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.

End of tape