The Religion of Humanism

The Religion of Humanism

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Humanism

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 1

Track: 254

Dictation Name: RR137A1

Date: 1960s-1970s

Hear now the Word of God as it is given to us in Genesis 3:1-5. Genesis 3:1-5:

“1Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2 And the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4 And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die:

5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”

Earlier this week, I read a book by a prison chaplain, Roger Campbell, entitled Justice Through Retribution. Campbell argues in that book for the biblical doctrine of restitution as the standard for all criminal law. In the course of his argument, he makes the comment that I found especially moving. He said we Christians must be concerned about what the prisons are because before too long many of us will be in prison probably.

I have been involved to a great extent in the Christian school movement and the resistance to Statist controls and in the trials. I shall be later this month in Ohio for one trial. Last month, I was in North Carolina for the trials of the Christian schools there; the previous month, in Kentucky. The charges? That the parents were contributing to the delinquency of their minor children by having them in Christian schools. The threat? That their children would be taken from them and put into foster homes and this has been done already in other states in other cases. About ten days ago, the judge in North Carolina ruled against the Christian schools. They are appealing. They refused to use state text books to teach Humanism, to submit to the State Board of Education, to be accredited by Humanists, certified by Humanists. They said their certification came from the Word of God.

They are appealing. They’ve asked for a stay of execution until the process of appeal is completed. That can take two to four years. Normally in such a case, such a stay is granted. But the state is fighting bitterly to have it denied on the grounds that the welfare of these children is at stake and they cannot be allowed to go on in these Christian schools for another two to four years. If the stay is denied, some of my friends and a number of other pastors in North Carolina will be going to prison this month or next. There is a persecution underway.

You don’t read about it in your daily papers because the press is Humanistic to the core. But there are new cases arising daily, all over the United States, and they will skyrocket to the thousands of cases within one to three years against churches, against schools, against missionary agencies. People are skeptical when I mention this, when I tell them that Humanism is on the march in an all-out war against Christianity, determined to obliterate it. And they say, we haven’t had any such case here. Recently I was able to tell some people the Christian Law Association had two cases in your county, but you didn’t read about it. Why should you be upset?

And of course the cases are started against small schools, independent churches. They don’t go after a major group. That would alarm people across country, but an isolated group here starting a school with 18 children, or a little congregation unaffiliated with any denomination, or a small independent missionary board—these are the groups they’re going after to establish legal precedence, which can then be applied across the boards to all the other churches in due time, and to all the other schools.

We are at war. It is warfare that is aimed at us, determined to obliterate us. It is being waged by the religion of Humanism—yes, Humanism is a religion. It used to call itself, up until about 1860, the Religion of Humanity. But the title was too open. Immediately, the backs of all Christians were up, here was another, a rival religion. So they dropped the term ‘religion of’ and began to call it Humanism and Humanitarianism. But it is a religion. It is openly identified as such by the United States Supreme Court which has given it the legal status of a religion. And it is at war, determined to obliterate Christianity.

Now those of you who want to read the more recent statements of the Humanist Creed can go to Alan Grover’s book, Ohio’s Trojan Horse which deals with the battle that the Christian schools waged in Ohio. There he gives the two recent American Humanist Manifestos. But I read the first one to you earlier, Genesis 3:1-5, the original, the basic Humanist Manifesto—man as his own god, determining for himself what constitutes good and evil. This is the religion of Humanism, and it is a religion.

It was a wise step on the part of Humanism when it dropped officially the label of religion. Most people don’t take time to think much about their faith. They’re content to let the pastor do it or some theologians, and unfortunately many theologians and many pastors aren’t doing too much thinking about it either. And today we are so used to taking things at their face value. If they’re labeled something, that’s what they are. And so because Humanism does not label itself ‘religion,’ our guard is not up. But few things are properly labeled in this world. And we’re very naive if we want things to be labeled and if we believe always in labels. One woman who let in a man late at night (she was a lone woman), his car had broken down and he wanted a telephone for a tow truck, but he came in and raped her. What did she say? How was I to know he didn’t really need a tow truck? Now we have that kind of unsophisticated, naïve approach as we deal with our world today. This country is now in the hands of the Humanists who govern the schools, increasingly govern and dominate the courts and virtually every branch of government. They’re not going to put a label on what they’re doing and saying this is a religion and we are at war against you. How much easier it is to wage war if you’re enemy never knows that you’re at war! And that is exactly what is happening.

Some people will ask me, what’s wrong with Humanism? Can’t we have a Christian Humanism? Yes we can, but only when we have a Christian Atheism. Humanism is a religion, an ancient one, the oldest one, the most basic enemy of biblical faith, and of the God of scripture. It goes back to the tempter. We must see Humanism therefore as an enemy without and an enemy within, as an aspect of man’s original sin—the desire of every man to be his own god, determining or choosing for himself, knowing for himself what constitutes good and evil.

Now the tempter did not deny that there is a God with whom we have to do. Some Humanists are Atheists. Psalm 14:1 says of all such that they are fools. The tempter is not a fool. He is described as being subtle or crafty and some render the word as aiming. His purpose was not to say there is no God. The devils in Hell, James tells us know that there is a God and tremble. Satan’s purpose was to make god irrelevant. That’s the most direct method and the simplest toward the Death of God position.

One prominent Harvard scholar o some years ago in his book on Humanism, states its case. Dr. {?} said (and I quote) of Humanism, “…that it groups religious values first of all around the concept of man and it deals with the problem of God in the second place only. This clearly shows where its preference lies. A Humanist is not one who necessarily denies the existence of God, he may deny it, he may doubt it or he may accept it. He may admit that a belief in God could be entertained or would greatly enrich our religious experience, or he might agree with a statement made by a professor J.S. Huxley, that the sense of spiritual relief which comes from rejecting the idea of God as a supernatural being is enormous. Humanists differ widely on that point but all insist that a true religious experience without a belief in God in the theistic sense is possible.” You see, Humanism insists on the sovereignty, on the primacy, on the ultimacy of man.

Theologically, this means that man seeks to be his own god, determining for himself what constitutes good and evil. The tempter’s plain statement to Eve was that it’s not important what God says or does, but what man says and becomes. “Yea, hath God said?” Do you mean to say you find His word absolutely binding? Now it may be a good word at times, but God is speaking from His position. He’s trying to protect His rights and you have to protect yours. God’s Word, you see, is held to be defensive, seeking to protect Himself from man’s independence.

[Dr.]{?} described Humanism as regarding God’s existence as irrelevant. But not only so, [Dr.]{?} went on to say in his work, a classic of its time, that a true knowledge of things in themselves is irrelevant. He said, “At present, we have again entered upon such a disturbing period in which the tendency to explain facts with reference to man’s interest is increasing. Knowledge of things as they are of themselves deemed impossible by can’t, by many in our day is thought not only impossible but even unimportant. Importance is assigned only to that which is vitally concerned with the individual or the human race, as in victus system, although perhaps for a different reason the eye again posits itself. It may seem a weak foundation upon which to build the structure of reality, but by many it is thought to be the only possible one, Prometheus, struggling against the gods in his own right. The name which we have given to this developing system of thought is Humanism.

Now, what is this position that he is taking, which is of course basic to all modern education? It’s Progressivism. It is Existentialism. It is Pragmatism. It says that things in themselves are not important. In other words, the meaning or truth of things is irrelevant. The question is, what is their usefulness to us? How do they serve us? Do you understand the drift of that? All things were made by God for His glory and to serve Him! What the humanists say is the meaning of things apart from man is irrelevant. Man as the new god must use all things functionally, and their significance is in terms of their relationship to him. Parents are there to serve the children. The Church is there to serve the people. The State is there to serve the people. All things must serve man, because man is the new god and their meaning is their usefulness to man. Like Comte, the humanist is not interested in the meaning of things but only in their usefulness to him. Things have meaning for the humanists only if they have use to him, and things are evil only if they are a roadblock to man in his self-realization as his own god.

That means that this book is the enemy because it terms everything that Humanism represents: the word of the enemy, original sin, depravity. Our faith is the enemy because what does our catechism begin by saying? Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Man exists because God created him for His own purpose and for His own glory. St. Paul tells us, ye are not your own. We have no property rights, even in ourselves. We are God’s possession.

To the humanist, that is anathema. [Dr.] {?} goes on to single out Calvin, of course, as the antithesis of everything that Humanism believes. The sovereignty of God, as against the sovereignty of man, man as the property of God, created to serve and glorify God rather than all things existing to serve and to glorify man.

Humanism is the religion, the established religion of the government schools. Children in these schools are given a very thorough religious education—in Humanism. Is it any wonder that they grow up to be rebellious, that they grow up as Egoists, that they grow up saying, “I want to be me! I want to be free!” They are simply expressing the religious faith they were taught.

And this Humanism is in the churches. Not only is Modernism in many, many churches today that claim to be Bible-believing, there is a heavy emphasis on psychology rather than theology. In its origin, psychology and anthropology were branches of theology. The most popular type of book today is a book on pastoral psychology. Why? Because people are interested in themselves so when you talk about God, you lose a congregation, but if you talk about them, and how they can realize themselves and how to solve their problems, and oh, people really have problems today, galore—it’s a luxury of Humanism—well, then they listen. Humanism is appealing in the pulpit. It’s like the old story of the Hollywood film star who went on talking for about an hour to an old friend he had not seen for a long, long time—about himself, and finally stopped and apologized, I’ve been rattling on about myself for an hour, enough of this, let’s change the subject. What do you think of my work and my pictures? [Laughter]

People are more interested in getting ahead than in serving the Lord. You see, an article of faith for Humanism is not to say there is no god. Many do. But many more say God, if He exists, is irrelevant. Remember, the Death of God School of Theology of 10 years ago did not say that there is no God. They said God is dead for us. We do not regard Him as relevant for our world and our times and our lives so He is dead for us. This is exactly what many churchmen in the pulpit and in the pew are saying today implicitly. They hold that the Word of God is irrelevant for education, for law, for politics, for the vocations, for the arts, for the sciences and so on. They do not feel that they are bound absolutely by the Word of God. And they have all kinds of convenient dispensational truths (so-called) to get around the necessity to tithe, as though God requires less of people in the Age of Grace than He did in the Old Testament (which was also an age of grace). No man has ever been saved except by the sovereign grace of God.

But what they do not like you see is a command word from God. What humanists want is an inspiring book. Do you know what the humanists first started to say about God when Humanism began to capture the pulpits? They began to talk about God and the Bible as the great resource of man. You go to Him for help, not as His servant, not as one who is bought with a price who is doubly the Lord’s—by creation and by salvation, absolutely His possession to be commanded in our work, in our families, in our income, with regard to our children, with regard to all things.

You see, when we talk about Humanism, we are talking about original sin. We’re talking about an enemy without and an enemy within and the Old Adam in us. And we dearly like to be placed in the driver’s seat, with God as the passenger with a big pocketbook.

And God never accepts that role. He is the Lord. And over and over again, He says through Isaiah, “I am the Lord and beside me there is none else.” He commands us. We cannot go to Him, as though he were a fire or life insurance agent, for salvation, as Savior but not as not as Lord. We go to Him on His terms and at His call and in absolute submission to Him and to His Word. All of scripture, and of course certainly Romans 9 tells us that man is programmed by God. But man seeks to do his own programming.

Humanism is a religion; the religion of Satan, the religion of fallen man, the religion of the Old Man in us. It is the religion of the State schools, of the colleges, of the universities and of all too many churches. It is the religion increasingly of our civil governments and of course, of the press and of Hollywood and of television. And our Humanistic Old Man so often responds readily to the Humanism of television and politics and is sleepy to the Word of God and to His servants. We become very generous to ourselves and unfriendly to tithing. We are ready to plan for ourselves, but not for the Lord’s work.

Our Lord has a telling parable on that in Luke 12:15-21. And the sad fact is that we read it as though it applied to the ungodly, those who are outside the Church. But it applies to us in our ungodliness within the Church because He spoke it to His disciples. [Luke 12:15-21] “15And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

16 And he spake a parable unto them, saying, the ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:

17 And he thought within himself, saying, what shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?

18 And he said, this will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.

19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

Do you see the thrust of that last statement as well as all that precedes this parable? It was directed to His disciples, directed to you and to me because we are rich to ourselves and poor toward God because of the Humanism in our heart.

We are at war. Humanism has begun an all-out campaign determined to obliterate Christianity. In succeeding evenings, I’ll tell you more about that war. But we cannot cope with Humanism in the world at large until we cope with it in ourselves. Too often the Church of our time and the Christians of our time, and all of us want a minimum Christianity. We want salvation, protection, Heaven at a minimal cost, a cost to be set by ourselves. But our salvation is the work of God’s sovereign grace through Jesus Christ, and the redeemed, Paul tells us, are those who are conformed to the new image of humanity in Jesus Christ, not only so, but we are required to be made conformable to His death, to be transformed by His atonement so that we die to ourselves, to the humanist in us, to be made alive in Him, for Him, and to Him.

I said earlier, and in closing I want to repeat. We are in a war. It is a war to the death. The enemy is determined to obliterate Christianity. I’ve talked with these men face-to-face in hallways and offices and elsewhere. They hate Christianity with a passion. But as we go to battle, the question we need to ask of ourselves is this: are we Christians, or are we humanists? Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.

Let us pray.

Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we come to Thee mindful that Thou who didst redeem us, at the cost of Thy only begotten Son’s blood, Thou who hast preserved us and blessed us, too often we have betrayed. We have had itching ears for the words of man and sleepy ears for Thy Word. We have been rich toward ourselves and poor toward Thee. We have been active on our behalf and indifferent in Thy battles. Oh Lord, our God, be merciful unto us in our sin. Awake us from the sleep of sin of Humanism and to the power of Thy Word and Spirit that we may be more than conquerors through Christ our Lord that we may meet the enemy in the confidence that the gates of Hell cannot hold out against Thy true Church. Oh Lord, our God, strengthen us in Thy service. Make us bold in our faith and more than conquerors in the wars of our Lord. In Jesus’ name, amen.