Deuteronomy

Treason and Tyranny

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: 54-110

Genre: Talk

Track: 054

Dictation Name: RR187AC54

Location/Venue:

Year: 1993

Let us worship God. Oh give thanks unto the Lord, call upon His name, make known His deeds among the people. Sing unto Him, sing songs unto Him. Talk ye of all His wondrous works, glory ye in His holy name, let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Let us pray.

Almighty God our heavenly Father we give thanks unto Thee for the week past, for Thy providential care, for Thine ever present spirit and for the joy of salvation. Keep us ever in the hollow of Thy hand, make us ever mindful that we have been called to be more than conquerors, that we have a world to conquer for Christ. Give us strength, knowledge and a holy zeal that we may bring all things into captivity to Jesus Christ our King. In His name we pray, Amen.

Our scripture this morning is from Deuteronomy 17: 1-7. Our subject: Treason and Tyranny. Deuteronomy 17: 1-7.

“Thou shalt not sacrifice unto the Lord thy God any bullock, or sheep, wherein is blemish, or any evil favouredness: for that is an abomination unto the Lord thy God.

2 If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God, in transgressing his covenant,

3 And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;

4 And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and enquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel:

5 Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.

6 At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.

7 The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So thou shalt put the evil away from among you.”

Modernist scholars believe that the Pentateuch, the books of Moses, represent the compilation of four major works and many, many minor writings over a period of centuries and long after Moses. Supposedly some redactors put this together. Now this is their approach to the whole of the Bible. The premise of dating is if this predicts something or shows knowledge of something that did not happen till later then it hast to be a later document, because of course they believe these are purely humanistic man created writings and therefore since they are not by God whom they essentially regard as an idea, there is no one who could fore know the future. The future is unknowable to them because it is not predestined and therefore anything that is predictive has to be of late composition. Well the net result is they will take a single verse of the bible and divide it into four different sources. The ironic fact is while they do this to the Bible they cannot do it to any non-biblical writings. We know that Shakespeare had collaborators at times but no one has ever been able to say ‘this was written by Shakespeare and this was written by so and so’. They cannot do it. This in itself indicates how absurd and fallacious their approach is. Moreover these men view the books as miscellaneous in character, for example, in our text verse one they hold because it deals with sacrifices can have no relationship to verses two and seven. Well again this is absurd and an unthinking opinion.

In verse one we have a ban on all defective animals as sacrifices. Such sacrifices are called an abomination unto the Lord. The word abomination in Hebrew means something disgusting and idolatrous. So it is both repulsive and morally wrong. By giving a defective sacrifice to God we declare that he is entitled to little more than the leftovers in our lives and possessions. It is then an insulting gift and/or sacrifice. It means that God does not have priority over us and in our thinking. This is said to be an abomination because we have made an idol of ourselves, we give ourselves priority when we look at our world and our possessions. Now verses two through seven is very essentially related to this. The purely formal and therefore disgusting and defective gift of God is the precursor to open idolatry and treason to God’s covenant. This law applies only to professing covenant members. In verse two it is clear that the law governs those who have transgressed their covenant with God. The pagans are not covered by this law, the subject is treason to the covenant and the covenant God. No society can long endure if it permits a disregard among its members or citizenry for its fundamental law order, to allow every man the option of insisting on his own version of the law or no law other than his own will is to invite anarchy and a radical disillusion of social order. Laws of treason protect the foundations of a society. When a society decays its law of treason, its self-protection, also wanes and tyranny replaces the law order. The root meaning of tyranny means government without God. This means however benevolent the state claims to be it’s a tyranny if it is government without God. If a man governs his family by virtual abdication so that he is doing nothing, still a tyranny, a tyranny of anarchy because it is government without God.

Treason thus is important in biblical law, a tyrant is one who claims sovereignty and is unrestrained by any law or by God. And every form of treason has reference to a fundamental law order that is either violated or set aside or neglected with indifference. And the people and the land are thereby betrayed and threatened. Tyranny has no basis in law, it is a usurpation of sovereignty and power, however it is used or not used. The importance of treason wanes as tyranny replaces law because instead of treason being important man’s wrath is directed against God and His word. When a country therefore disregards treasonable activities it becomes the tyranny, the old law order, whatever it was, is now being progressively disregarded, obedience to a law order is been replaced by a tyranny or by loyalty to a person or party. Now, given this fact, we can understand why the biblical law of treason is doubly offensive. First it requires the death penalty and second this treason is disloyalty to and the betrayal of God’s covenant and His covenant law. Now a generation unwilling to execute criminals will hardly be agreeable to those laws violating God’s covenant, the very idea is remote and alien and repulsive to them. Like all laws this law could be misused. Steven was executed according to Acts 7:57-58 according to this law. Now the penalty on Judea for misusing this law and for crucifying its Lord and Lawgiver was death. The crime is also known as apostasy, apostasy is another word for treason. The word apostasy comes from the Greek word ‘apostasia’ meaning defection or revolt. Apostates are revolutionaries. It tells us much about our present world that an apostate is now seen as someone who disagrees with the churches doctrine whereas its true meaning is that he is a revolutionary, he is a person who lives and moves and acts in terms of another law and another god, usually himself, then the God of scripture.

In terms of this it becomes clear why an apostate is a radical revolutionary and why God’s law regards apostasy so seriously. In Deuteronomy 16:21-22 which we dealt with last week, the law bans the religious use of trees, real or artificial, these were fertility cult symbols. Again, in that passage, the word translated as image means standing stones or obelisks, pillars. These like blemished offerings are declared to be an abomination to the Lord. What such things meant of course was false worship. In verses two to seven in our text the reference is to deliberate and avowed apostasy. The progression is from synchronistic and false forms of worship to open revolt. The words in verse seven ‘so shalt thou put the evil away from among you’ means to burn out, purge out by fire, the evil in your midst. At the same time the law makes clear that no man is to be convicted by other than the testimony of two or more witnesses or forms of evidence. Even if the man is apparently clearly guilty he cannot be convicted unless the law of valid testimony is met. It is interesting that this distinction is preserved in Scottish law. Unlike English and American law and other continental forms of law which say guilty or not guilty they have another verdict, not proven, which is not to say he is not guilty but simply not proven. A very important distinction. The witnesses cast the first stone or the first means of execution they took part in to verify their inherence to their testimony. After this, members of the community took part, the law was Gods but the enforcement was the community’s duty. God gives a law, the church must proclaim it and teach it, but it’s the people who must in their organized institutional form enforce it. There’s a very clear reference to this law in First Corinthians 5:13 for Paul says ‘and he shall put away from among you that wicked person’. There is probably a reference to this law also in the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:13 ‘deliver us from evil’ which reads literally ‘deliver us from the evil’, the evil one or the evil person, the traitor. It can refer to Satan or to an apostate or apostates.

The law of evidence requires collaboration as essential to conviction. Because man’s testimony can be untrustworthy corroboration is basic to God’s law. One of the problems with administrative law and common to tyrannies is that the requirement of corroboration is often bypassed. While courts deteriorate in tyrannies more important is the fact that they are steadily replaced by administrative verdicts. Most of the law in the United States today is administrative. Tyranny was routine in the nations of antiquity and to all nations since who bypass God’s law, whatever religion they may nominally adhere to. The shift to God’s law in Christendom was never more than limited but it has been basic to whatever freedom we have had in the western world. God’s covenant and his covenant law alone provide for true justice. An interesting sidelight on this law comes from the ancient rabbis. The guilty man committed his offense with a knowledge of the consequences because whatever else in the law might be forgotten this penalty was likely to be remembered. According to Hirsch and I quote:

“He committed the act definitely under the presumption of such eventual consequence. In contemporary colloquial terms ‘I’ll do it if I hang for it’ so that he already had the verdict of death on him when he appears before the court.” Unquote.

In verse five we have a reference to the person charged as that man or that woman. This is unusual in the law in that it refers to a feminine offender. Then as now woman have pleaded that their subordinate status makes them less culpable. As Wilson used to put it ‘the devil made me do it’. Well, it can be my husband made me do it and I did not fully understand what was involved. Such a plea is undercut here by making both men and women equally culpable. It is God’s law, it is taught to all, all have an equal capacity for understanding it and therefore all are subject to the penalty of the law. Let us pray.

Our Father, keep our hearts in the path of righteousness, of truth, that we may avoid treason unto Thee. Thou knowest our proneness to put ourselves first, ahead of everything including Thee. Take away our pride and our willfulness, give us grace to submit to Thee and to Thy word, grant that Thy spirit correct us and guide us in the way that we should go and bless us in Thy service. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Question unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Well, in the Bible they are called gods in that they participate in judgment which is the prerogative of God. And God declares I have said you are as gods, like unto gods, but you shall die like men. They are the traitors [unknown]. And that’s the view of scripture concerning them. But today it is so routine that it is startling. One report just this week said that corruption has become endemic and one of the shocking things to the English is that in so short a time under [unknown] corruption has saturated the English government and state so that they do not feel there is any likelihood of the Tories winning the election because even their own people are at present determined to vote against them. Well, we have gone seriously astray in that we rarely now go after corrupt judges. Only once in a decade do you hear that Congress has dealt with a corrupt federal judge and on a state and on the county level it is extremely rare. So they are the first traitors to the law and civil government should concern itself with the corruption on the court. Any other questions or comments?

As you know the very idea of treason is now virtually gone and while we’ve had a few convictions of some flagrant traitors who have sold American military secrets to foreign powers by and large it is only the only most flagrant cases that are prosecuted. Any number of cases are prepared and sent to the Attorney General of the United States routinely and they are simply filed, nothing is done about it. Before long we shall have no cases taken to court and in fact, in at least one case where a man was convicted of flagrant treason there is a growing demand that he be pardoned. This means that there is a major erosion of any sense of treason or loyalty in our society. Yes?

[Question unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Treason in biblical law is against God. The state and the church must affirm and live by God’s law. So that the whole of the society must be under God’s law and therefore treason is applicable in every realm. Not in every realm does the state have the right to apply it because the church must apply the laws of treason in its realm. Well if there are no further questions or comments, let us conclude with prayer.

Our Lord and our God we thank Thee for Thy word. We thank Thee that Thy government stands even as churches and states crumble and pass away. We thank Thee that it is Thy government that shall judge all others, all men, courts and churches and nations. And Thy truth shall prevail. How great Thou art oh Lord and we praise Thee. 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.