Miscellaneous

Godly and Ungodly Mercy

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Religious studies

Lesson: 17-18

Genre: Lecture

Track: 72

Dictation Name: RR147A1

Location/Venue:

Year: 1960’s-1970’s

…That unto Thee that the government is on Thy shoulders, and that Thou art omnipotent. And we thank Thee that thought the heathen rage against Thee, though the ungodly take counsel together and conspire against thy government, yet thy throne stands fast. In this confidence our Father we come to Thee, knowing that Thou art God. Resolved to be partakers in Thy so great salvation, and in the glory of Thy victory. Prepare us therefore our Father for victory, arm us by thy holy spirit, make us bold in confidence, resolute unto victory, firm in the conviction that the kingdoms of this world shall be the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ. Bless us now therefore as we study Thy word. Bless us each according to our needs, and guide us day by day in Jesus name, amen.

Let us turn to Proverbs 12:10.

Proverbs 12:10

“10 A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.”

This is a statement of Solomon. It is an example of Biblical wisdom. Biblical wisdom or Biblical law has two characteristics, which are important for us to understand. First, it is always concrete; second it always gives a minimal case because it is precedent law. Now what is precedent law? All our law today is a product of Biblical law, because our law today does not give us a general over all principal, but it gives us precedent law. When the courts rule in a particular case, they establish a precedent, and future decisions are made in terms of say, the McNaughton case. Because that particular case establishes an understanding of a fundamental principle.

Now precedent law is greatly abused today by our courts because we have lost a fundamental faith. And what the Supreme Court has been doing is to establish new precedents which are in complete violation of the spirit of the Constitution, by a bare reading of the letter, and a reading of the letter in a sense that destroys the spirit. This is what Paul was speaking about when he said: “The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” In other words, the law is to be interpreted by letter and by spirit, in terms of the intention of its framer.

Now, Biblical law and wisdom always is concrete, and takes a minimal case. And if it applies in this minimal case, it applies in every other case. To give two examples briefly before we analyze this particular example, in Deuteronomy 25:4 we are told that “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox which treadeth out the corn.” Then again in 1st Corinthians 9:9 following, and in 1st Timothy 5:18 we have the Bibles own commentary on that verse, thou shalt not muzzle the ox which treadeth out the corn; in other words, an ox which works in your field to help with the harvesting, which pulls the plow, the wagon, is entitled to some of the produce from the field. He is entitled to his keep. It follows therefore Paul says, commenting on this verse of Moses, that “the laborer is worthy of his hire.” Here you have the principle of labor and the rewards of labor.

“And it therefore follows,” Paul says, “if an ox is entitled to something, and a laborer is entitled to his reward, then certainly the minister or missionary or the apostle, I Paul, am certainly entitled to my reward.”

Now, out of this simple statement, thou shalt not muzzle the ox which treadeth out the corn, all this follows. Because the Biblical law says: “If it applies to the minimal case it certainly applies to every other.”

Now the Napoleonic law code, which was the law code of the Enlightenment and of Rationalism, would take a general statement and say: “Here is a fundamental principle.” But they wouldn’t say how far it extended. It was not precedent law. And so this fundamental principle might be good for the state, and it might be good for great politicians, but it might not extend to you.

And so this type of law is very defective. A good example of this enlightenment type of law is the UN Charter. The complete reverse of the Biblical law which takes the minimal case, always. Now one more example before we turn to this verse, Proverbs 12:10. In Ecclesiastes 12:8 we read that: “Whoso breaketh a hedge, a serpent shall smite him.” Or it can be translated: “Whoso breaketh a fence a serpent shall smite him.” What did this mean? In ancient times, instead of building a fence around your field you planted a hedge. It would be a thick hedge, 2-3-4 feet of bushes, shrubs, and the like. And all kinds of birds would naturally nest in that hedge so it would be good for game. But also your poisonous and other snakes would find that to be their best nesting place. So that, if you wanted to break the hedge between your field and your neighbors, because you wanted your cows to get into your neighbors pasture, you stood a good chance of being snake bitten. Whoso breaketh a hedge or a fence, a serpent shall smite him.

Now that is a good observation. A very real one. But, another principle is involved. “Whoso breaketh one of God’s laws, a serpent shall smite him.” Within his own crime are the seeds of his own destruction. Because God has created the Universe in such a way that the soul that sinneth will die. All of creation will be at war with him, as Deborah sang in her Psalm: “The stars in their course fought against Sisera.” Because Sisera was a tyrant. And ultimately he met his downfall.

Now let us turn to Proverbs 12:10, with these things in mind. “A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.” Now the minimal meaning here clearly is kindness to animals, but not on a sentimental basis. Because the Bible does not recognize sentimental love as at all valid. It has no use for a warped love of animals combined with a hatred of people, and there are many people who love animals and hate people.

According to scripture, as we approach this subject of animals, we find first, that God hates nothing which he has made. Psalm 36:6, Psalm, 144:9, Jonah 4:11 and other verses make this clear. God created everything good. He hates those who turn to evil. But, he created everything good, and it is His purpose that everything shall obey His law.

2nd the Sabbath rest extends to animals, Exodus 20:10.

3rd the law, Exodus 23:4-5 requires us to help the overburdened beast of even an enemy.

4th, the unequal and unfair yoking of an ox and an ass is illegal, Deuteronomy 22:10. You cannot yoke unequal animals, because you put all the weight on the stronger of the two.

5th, the verse we have already dealt with in Deuteronomy 25:4, the ox is not to be muzzled, in treading out the corn.

6, in Deuteronomy 22:6, and 23:19, kind treatment of mother and young among animals is required.

Now it is clear that mercy to animals is under Biblical requirements. The Bible requires us to be merciful, even to animals. It follows therefore that mercy is under law, not under feeling. The Bible says that our mercy, even of animals, is not to be apart from the law. Mercy therefore is not Godly if it is apart from law. And because the wicked are lawless, lawless because they are Godless, they do not recognize God’s law, they cannot give law, and the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

We have therefore an obligation under God to be merciful to all men under law, from animals on up. This includes the Negro. But ungodly men today are very definitely cruel to the Negro. Let us examine a few facts concerning the Negro today. Nearly 1/4th of the Negro women who have been married are now divorced or separated. The white rate for women is seven and nine tenths. Nearly one out of four Negro babies born today is illegitimate. The white rate is three and seven hundreds percent. More than half of all Negro children are helped by the Federal state aid to dependent children. The White percentage is 8% the Negro percentage would be higher if you included the number of children who were indirectly helped because their parents received some sort of government compensation. But more than half are directly helped. The birth rate for Negro’s is 40% higher than for whites. And while Negro’s represent only %10 of the nation’s population, they account for 61% of the murders and non-negligent man slaughters, 54% of the forcible rapes, 58% of the robberies, 59% of the aggravated assaults, and from 33-71% of most other major crime. This is according to police records, and they don’t begin to cover all the crimes.

For one thing, if you have ever gone into the South even briefly you realize how kindly and tolerant they are of the Negro, and he gets away with much there that he is not allowed to get away with elsewhere.

Now how do the wicked answer? How do the ungodly answer this problem? Their answer is more civil rights. More monetary grants. More votes. More everything. The ungodly in their tender mercies are poor, because their mercy is appeasement. An appeasement is not mercy, it is destructive to the person who receives it. But the ungodly cannot function under law, because being themselves lawless, their idea of goodness is lawlessness. The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. A lawless man doesn’t want the law to function against him, and the ungodly man is outside God’s law, he is an outlaw. He is in rebellion against God’s law, and God’s law is against him, has passed a sentence of death on him; and he is in headlong flight. As a result he doesn’t want law, and when he sets about to create his man made law whereby he is going to save man, it is really a form of anti law. And so the laws he passes are anti laws, not to establish true law and order, but to destroy it.

So instead of giving the Negro for example what the Negro needs, law, he gives them anti law. And instead of bringing him under a discipline which will be most conducive to his future and to his development and to his growth, he bribes him into lawlessness.

After all, what are these Federal grants to the Watts area but an incitement and a bribery to further rioting? The more you riot, the greater the benefits. Is this not the implication? And has this not been the practice of the Federal and the state governments towards the Negro for a number of years now? The penalty is against the law abiding, against the police, against the Christian citizenry. The tender mercies of the wicked, Solomon says, are cruel.

The lawless therefore cannot think lawfully, and their conception of law is anti law. Hence, the world they dream of creating is a world without God’s law, a world in which God’s law is systematically subverted and destroyed. Now the fundamental proposition of the ungodly is simply this: “You can live without God, and you can prosper if you despise God’s law.” Now that is the presupposition of every ungodly man. It is Johnson’s presupposition, very clearly. And it is the presupposition of most politicians in both parties, because they are not Godly men. Accordingly they are going to bless everything that is conducive to their own philosophy, and they will bless those who are trying to prosper in contempt of God’s law, and this is the essence of the civil right movement. But the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. They are destroying the Negro, as well as the country.

The best and truest mercy, according to Solomon, and according to Moses, and according to the whole of scripture, is God’s law. And God’s grace is never, never revealed apart from His law. And God’s grace is not revealed to us, apart from God’s law, and the cross of Jesus Christ is the supreme example of the coincidence, the perfect coincidence of law and grace. Because what does the cross represent? First of all, the perfect, the absolute justice of God. God says that sin against Him, rebellion against him, treason against Him, of which mankind was guilty, was deserving of death. Man had to die. There could be no changing of the law. And Jesus Christ as the representative man, as your representative and mine, as your next of kin, which is a concept of the Scripture we will examine at a later date, as our next of kin, our Goel, our Redeemer, went to the cross to pay that death penalty.

In other words, treason, sin, was so serious in God’s sight, and His law so rigid and abiding, that it required the death of the second person of the Trinity, the only begotten Son of God Jesus Christ. And yet in that very act of total justice, we also see the total grace of God, His total mercy. As Paul says: “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” There we see His perfect mercy, in one and the same act, total law, total mercy, total grace.

As we face the problem which is increasingly overwhelming our country today, we need to think religiously and not angrily or sentimentally. And the best mercy according to the Bible, to the Negro today is to put him under law. Apart from that he has no future, and everyone who talks today about police brutality is striking against Gods law, and is striking against the concept that law is an act of mercy on Gods part, and inseparable from His mercy, that there can be no grace to anyone who will not accept law. We need therefore to uphold the dignity of the law. We are commanded in fact by scripture, to pray for all those daily who are servants of the law, and in these times we ought to pray specifically for the police officers, because certainly their work has been made intensely difficult by the savage and anti Christian attempt to replace law with anti law. To replace the police and the judges with humanistic law makers and psychiatrists, whose function is to create an anti law. The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel, and the very men who in their cruelty have made the Negro today lawless, will in the end also turn on him, and destroy him, ruthlessly, because the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

Whose guilt in this is greatest? Leviticus 4 gives us the principles of sacrifice for atonement of sin, and it tells us first that the greatest offense in the sight of God is that of the priest, and therefore the atonement of the priest ranks first, then that of the prince or the official state, and then that of the common people. The Negro’s are clearly guilty. The politicians are even more guilty. But even more guilty according to the word of God, which affirms that the greater the responsibility, the greater the culpability; most guilty of all are churchmen. Men who get up in the pulpits and preach anti-Christianity. Preach anti law. Preach a sentimental humanism, which is a product of the enlightenment and not of Scripture. Society today has become humanistic, and the basic motive is not the upholding of God’s law, but human welfare, human rights. And once you begin to emphasize ministering to man, rather than administering God’s law, you have what Charles Hodge of Princeton said a hundred years ago approximately, the principle of the lowest common denominator taking over.

He described it at that time with respect to the public schools. And he said: “First of course, the state took over the schools promising to keep Christianity in the schools. Then when the Unitarians objected to Orthodox Christianity, they eliminated that and made in its place a semi Unitarian Christianity the only Christianity of the school books.” And he said: “What will happen is that he who believes the least will demand that the book in the school conforms to his belief, and then he who believes nothing will demand that his total lack of belief prevail.” And it has so happened. Because wherever your law caters to man, the principle of the lowest common denominator takes over. And so the law integrates downward, towards the worst. And because today we no longer recognize God and His law as basic to our law, the principle of the Lowest Common Denominator is operative. And today the courts are mindful not of you, but of the criminal who is arrested, his rights are most precious to the courts. And the courts are mindful not of you, but of the hoodlums among the Negros, because humanism is always and ultimately governed by the principle of the lowest common denominator. This is inescapable.

And unless we get back to recognizing a Christian foundation to all of society and all of law, we will only continue our spiral downward to the lowest common denominator, and the lowest common denominator is triumphing progressively.

The last year, the pulpits were harping on civil rights. This year, at least in Northern California, the tune in every kind of church and synagogue is the homosexual. The lowest common denominator is taking over. But originally our law was God centered. The sovereignty of God was basic. But today because the principle of the lowest common denominator prevails, there is a move to equalize everything down to that lowest common denominator; which means, something has to give. And this has to be us, we are told. We have to be integrated downward. All have to be the same; all have to be equalized, so that quality is sacrificed to quantity, thrift to profligacy, virtue to vice. This means that all vice is vindicated. Minority rights means rights for homosexuals, criminals, and ultimately the triumph of evil.

This is inescapable in any humanistic society, in any society which does not recognize the primacy of God. Because then it places man not under law but over law, and this is the death of a culture.

But if we affirm what was once the battle cry of Christendom, the Crown Rights of King Jesus, the Crown Rights of King Jesus means that the Trinity and the Word of God rule over men. All men are under that law. They are blessed by obedience and cursed by disobedience. God, not man is sovereign. And man’s rights are possible only under law, Gods law. And human rights are derivative from and only possible under the sovereignty of god and the Crown Rights of King Jesus. A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

We have been subjected for some years, to the bleeding heart and tender mercies of the wicked. And they are indeed cruel. With a cruelty that is destructive, anarchistic, nihilistic, and is tearing out the heart of our civilization. We cannot revive our Christian America without a Christian faith. Let us pray.

Almighty God our Heavenly Father, we give thanks unto Thee for Thy law and for Thy word, and we thank Thee that though men indeed rage against it and try to substitute for it their anti law, yet Thy law stands sure, and men are either blessed or destroyed in terms of it. We have come here our father to be blessed by Thy law. To establish ourselves thereon that we may grow and prosper, and that we might be that remnant through whom thou might reestablish a Christian America. To reestablish the sovereignty of Thy word. Toe reestablish law and order under God. We pray for thy blessing on every home here represented. Thou knowest the secret needs and hunger of every heart, do thou minister unto each. Bless thou the men in their responsibilities, the women in their services, the children in faith and obedience. Protect us by Thy might, from evil doers, and prosper us according to Thy word. In Jesus name, amen.

[Audience Leader] We have almost 15 minutes for questions, if you have any with respect to this subject.

[Audience Member] …This business that gets down in the Baptist churches, we are not under the law anymore, we are under grace…

[Rushdoony] Yes, this is a common statement in most churches today, we are no longer under law, but under grace. Now, there is a measure of truth to this, and yet it is a much abused statement. It is true in this respect, that as far as our salvation is concerned we are not saved by the law, we are saved by Christ. But, we are saved now to keep the law. So, we have an obligation to the law, so that you cannot take a remark that has reference to redemption as a so many ministers do, and say that the law is of no account. Because then you have nullified the whole meaning of your salvation. Man’s sin was to be a law breaker, and what does man’s salvation do? It makes him a law keeper. First he was a covenant breaker, now he is a covenant keeper. So his relationship to the law now is not that of an outsider but that of an insider, it is his law. And Jeremiah tells us, and Ezekiel does also, that the mark of the new covenant of the Christian era is that: “I will write my law on the tables of their hearts.” So now God’s law is written on the tables of our hearts, it is a part of our new nature. So when we become Christian our relationship to the law is not that of an outlaw who hates it, but you might say, that on an in-law. So we are in the law now, or the law is in us, it is written on the tables of our heart, so it is no longer our desire to break the law, I fact it troubles us when to any extent we depart from the law. We want to be law abiding. That is a part of our new nature, because the law is an expression of Gods nature. Of Christ’s nature.

Now, when we are Christians, Christ is our new life, is he not. He is the new man in us. Therefore, the law is now an expression of our being also. So that we desire to keep the law. Does that help explain that statement?

The trouble is of course that most churches today are completely oblivious to the law, and they pay no attention to it, and as a result they replace law with sentimentality, and have become humanistic. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Well, this is a loaded question, but a good one. Now, what is our relationship to the law as Christians? First, our Lord said in the Sermon on the Mount that he is come not to destroy the law, but to uphold it and fulfill it. And that not one jot or tittle of the law should pass away till heaven and earth pass away. Now, except where our Lord specifically declared there was a change in the law, or that the law was fulfilled and finished, the law stands. Thus, the ceremonial law and of the priesthood, the whole law of the temple and the synagogue found its fulfillment in Christ. And so the veil of the temple was rent in twain, to indicate that the old Levitical priesthood was now ended. We are given a full description of this in Hebrews as well as elsewhere. Thus the ceremonial part of the law does not apply to us. Then certain specific laws were changed, as far as the penalty was concerned. We are told specifically that the penalty for adultery is no longer death. However it is now grounds, most churches hold, but not all, for divorce. There are differences there.

Third, the Sabbath question, and here again there are differences of opinion, the law specified Sabbath keeping. Which day is the Sabbath? Now the Sabbath was typified after the creation week. But the first Sabbath began with the day of Passover, in other words, before the nation Israel was constituted and the first Passover there is no record of the Sabbath, so the first Passover was the first Sabbath day of the Bible, and all Sabbaths were reckoned from that day. In the 10 commandments as given in Deuteronomy we are told, and it’s best perhaps to read specifically in Deuteronomy 5, Deuteronomy 5:13

“13 Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work:

14 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.

15 And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.”

In other words, the Sabbath day began with the deliverance from Egypt, because it was Israel’s day of redemption. Now our day of redemption is the day of resurrection, is it not? The first day of the week. So, we observe the first day of the week as the Sabbath, as our day of redemption. Then the Sabbath day in the Old Testament varied, because the Jewish calendar, or Hebrew calendar to be more exact, the Hebrew calendar was based on an exact number of weeks in each 6 months period. As we begin a year, each year, new year’s day is in a different day of the week, is it not? But it was not so in the Hebrew calendar, because they took the 5 extra days, and made them Sabbaths. Two at the end of the first 6 months period according to the law, and 3 at the end of the next 6 months period, so that they had these extra Sabbaths, and they counted as Sabbaths, and then after these 3 Sabbaths you begin again with the first day of the week. So you see the Sabbath varied in which day it fell every 6 months.

Now, in the New Testament, we find that the first day of the week was the day of worship. How was it kept? Well, we also find that there was no day of rest then for them, because they were living in the Roman Empire. This was a work day, so that each Sunday morning every Christian had to get up and go to work, and come home at the end of the day, a hard days labor, before he could go to church. So the services in the book of Acts were held either in the early morning hours, or more often, in the evening hours. And they had weekly communion, because they brought their food with them to church and they had what was called and agape fest or love feast, and Paul deals with that, and this was their way of getting together. They met by the way in homes, there was no church building in the New Testament, wealthy members would open up their home. Now, this was hard on the people. we find in the Book of Acts, one young man Eutychus, who had come to the service, and apparently had worked hard during the day, fell asleep during Paul’s sermon and he fell out of the window. And Paul brought him back to life miraculously.

So, we have every indication that the apostolic teaching was that the Sabbath keeping was not to be as rigid as it had been in the Old Testament, but nonetheless the Sabbath was to be kept, the Christian Sabbath, as far as men were able to. And very quickly when they were able to have a day of rest, they did abide by it with considerable strictness. In the early church councils we find every evidence of this.

Well, our time is now up, and I think we will just pass the basket around, I made an announcement if you recall with respect to the offerings earlier. We will meet weekly, and next week we will begin a series of studies in Genesis, with the first chapter of Genesis. Those of you who have either heard my tape or read my pamphlet on the religion of revolution, will understand something of the importance of understanding properly the early chapters of Genesis, because these were among the first chapters attacked in the Enlightenment by the revolutionary spirits, by the prophets of the religion of revolution. Because it was necessary to destroy these early chapters in order to prepare the way for the religion of revolution. I think that is about it.