Hope for the Future

The Millennium--Now or Later

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Millennial Studies

Genre: Lecture

Track: 01

Dictation Name: RR192A1

Location/Venue: ________

Year: 1992

[Introductory speaker begins]

“Christ’s victorious church, and Chalcedon, and, uh, this church have co-sponsored the reformation conference for nine years now. It first began when we were still out at Southside chapel out here. Some of you remember some of you were at that very first conference. It has grown considerably since that first conference and, uh, it is good to see the number of people that we have here today, we welcome you, we trust that this will be a time of great blessing to you. You may be seated.

I’m Jean Southall, I’m pastor of First Reformed Church of the city of California. That is a mission work of Reformed Church United States, this church here provides oversight for us we’re not yet established as a church we’re still a mission congregation and uh, it is good to welcome our first speaker of the day, uh, R. J. Rushdoony. He is no stranger to most of you, I first met Rush back in 1965. He is a gentleman, he was a gentleman the first time I ever met him, we had him in our home I was so impressed with this man. He came into our home and he talked to us of things I had never heard before. My two brothers in law, Roger Gibbons and Gordon Savage were both ministers, and had Rush for a series of meetings right in California.

Rush is one of the few men that I’ve ever heard speak for an hour at a time wishing that I would to speak. I never have tired of listening to him, he can’t speak too long so far as I’m concerned, he says more in the time that he has than anyone I’ve ever heard and uh, I have the twenty-fifth anniversary issue of Chalcedon. It came out in October of 1990, and that the Chalcedon Report, with that issue that was the flagship publication of the Chalcedon Report was first applied to Rev. Rushdoony’s newsletter April 2’nd, 1969. With the issue # 44. It was two issues after that that for the very first time there was an article by a writer, uh, other than Rev. Rushdoony. In his very first newsletter, Rev. set forth the essence of the work he had undertaken with the help of his supporters and the vision he had for the church worldwide.

Chalcedon and its publications with God’s help have striven not to deviate from that premeire expression of purpose. And in his first newsletter he said that he wanted to discuss the significance of what you my supporters are doing. And he went on to explain in that what was going on at that particular time and it is still appropriate for today. He pointed out that our age was seeing a similar development that what had happened during the renaissance. Emperors and kings very early began to subsidise writers and artists to promote a statist perspective and to saturate contemporary thinking with that view. And there were clearly religious and philosophical trends pointing toward humanism and statism but it was the heavy, steady, and long promotion of these things by subsidy that was responsible for the rapid spread and victory of these forces. “Europe was steadily conquered by a rapacious and brutal statism,” he wrote. “The renaissance was period of showy art, but behind the facade it was an era of brutal terror.” He said that, “Our age was seeing a similar development. “

“The major and minor developments have been extensively captured by the forces of humanism and statism and a new age of terror is developing all around us. Scholarship, arts, literature, being subsidised to serve the purposes of humanism and statism. And our schools and colleges have been largely captured by these forces as have been most publishers and periodicals. This movement has been a long time in developing” He continued to write. “It cannot be defeated overnight. It cannot be defeated by short sighted people who want victory today or tomorrow and are unwilling to support a long term battle. The future must be won and shall be won by a renewal and development of our historic Christian liberty, by an emphasis on the fact of basic government is the self government of the Christian man, and by a recognition that an informed faith is the mainspring of victory.

History has never been dominated by majorities but only by dedicated minorities who stand unconditionally on their faith. What you are doing in your suppor or me,” he wrote, “is to sponsor a countermeasure to the prevailing trends to promote by your support, interest, and study a Christian renaissance. To declare by these measures your belief that the answer to humanism and its statism is Christian faith and liberty. Our choice today is between two claimants to the throne of Godhead and universal government. The state which claims to be our shepherd, keeper, and savior... and the Holy Trinity, our only God and Savior. You have made your choice by both faith and action.” And then he signed his first newsletter.

Rush has never ceased to proclaim the truths of God’s word and today we’re looking forward to hearing “The Millenium--Now or Later” by Doctor R.J. Rushdoony, president of Chalcedon foundation whom we welcome to this podium at this time.”

[audio cuts off and then resumes] [Rushdoony begins speaking]

The subject of this conference is an important one and a dangerous one. The books of scripture that deal with prophecy, promise both a curse on those who add or subtract to the words of those books, or who in any way falsify their meaning.

And implicitly call a blessing on all those who take heed to them. So the subject is in effect both a very promising one, and a dangerous one. One of the problems is that people tend to concentrate on timetables, on how to escape tribulation, like subjects. Rather than on what God requires of us! What are the marching orders in these sections of scripture which deal with our future under God? Christians are so used to talking of the Millenium, that they are unaware of and do not appreciate the revolutionary character of this teaching. More than a few people in pagan antiquity believe in something comparable to a millenium to a golden age. But in every case it existed for them in the past!

The Roman poet Avit, in writing on the creation of the world in the metamorphosis, sought as a development out of a time evil chaos. And man as he developed and became man experience in that early stage of history when he was barely conscious of himself, a golden age. The Titan’s Prometheus in particular became an anime of the Gods, and Prometheus was the one who created the golden age for mankind. And all this words and I quote “Then sprang up first the golden age which of itself maintained the truth and right of everything unforced and unconstrained. There was no fear of punishment, there was no threatening law emblazoned tables nailed up to keep the folk in awe. There was no man who’d crouch or creep to judge with {?} in hand.

They lived safe without a judge in every realm and land. The lofty pine tree was not hewn from mountains where it stood, and seeking strange and foreign lands to roll upon the flood. Man knew none other countries yet then where themselves did keep. There was no town enclosed as yet with walls and ditches deep. No horn nor trumpet was in use, nor sword nor helmet worn. The world was such that soldiers help might easily be for por [?]. The fertilizer as yet was free of cut from spade or plow, and yet it yielded of itself of everything enough. And man and of themselves contented well with plain and simple food that on the earth by Nature’s gift, without their travail stood. Did live by raspes, hips, and haws [???], by corn owls, bums, and cherries, by slows [?] and apples, nuts and pears, and loads of rappleberries [?]. And by these acorns dropped on ground from Joe’s broad tree in field.

The springtime lasted all the year and Zempler with his mild and gentle blast did cherish things that drew of their own accord. The ground un-tilled, all kinds of fruit did plenteously afford. No mulch nor tillage was bestowed on lean and barren ground to make the corn a better head and rancor for to stand then streams of milk! Then streams ran wine, and yellow honey, clothed from each green tree round the waves of fiery sea bits [?] clothed.” End of quote.

Notice, that for Avit all these blessing were the result of a world without law. No brazen tables nailed up, no threatening law. This is the dream of paganism, the dream of Jean-Jacque Crusoe, the dream of the environmentalists! Destroy the world of Christianity and its law and the golden age will return again. It is not an accident that this resembles the ideas of our contemporary humanist and environmentalists, the natural order from Avit and before Avit to the present is seen as the ideal one not a fallen one. The golden age was that time when men lived without law and therefore without problems. Food was not cultivated it was there always as one girl said at Berkeley in the sixties, when questioned about the work free world she wanted, “What about food production.?” She looked at the reporter with contempt and said, “Food is.” This was the pagan view. And it is again the view of all too many around us.

Nature assured a perpetual spring, there was no armour-ment, no national defence. Only universal peace because there was no law. all men were equal and there were no judges of it. The environment went untouched and streams ran with either milk or wine if not with honey. Man did not buy sin destroy this golden age, the gods did because they were jealous.

The fault for all human ills thus rests with the gods! Man not being a sinner there was no need for him to be changed or to mend his life. Now of course the complaint is against the God of scripture. As against this biblical faith holds that of the garden of Eden was a testing place and man failed the test! He sought to be himself a God, the determiner of good and evil or morality and law. This means that humanities basic battle is against its own nature. Man’s hope is not in himself but in God his redeemer. Man must be recreated by his savior, only then can he move away from his sin and his death sentence to serve the kingdom of God. His life must be God-centered and God’s purpose is first and foremost, His kingdom and His righteousness or justice. And in terms of this, the pagan myth of a golden age destroyed by the gods is a myth. Man the sinner wants to blame everything and everyone except himself.

Because of the myth of the Golden Age pagan antiquity, its only hope for the future was a totalitarian kingdom of man which plato’s republic is the classic statement. Wherein man by totalitarian controls builds an order against whatever gods may be. But that imagined order is a version of hell.

On the other hand, Christian faith sees victory ahead. Nowhere in all of history apart from Biblical faith have men seen victory in the future. Men have always apart from God and His word, looked backward to a golden age when there was no law and the gods were no problem. In the great commision we are given a governing task. In Campbell's words, and I quote “The task at hand is nothing less than an Christianized world.” Unquote. This vision of victory marks all the Bible. For example, Psalm 47 declares “O clap your hands, all ye peoples,” people being the Gentiles, the whole world, all the nations... “Shout unto God with a voice of triumph for the Lord most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet. He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah. God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding. God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness. The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth belong unto God: he is greatly exalted.”

 

The psalmist celebrates God’s total victory before the event! We are also required as part of our faith to believe and to proclaim joyfully that total victory in the face of all adversities and battles. Psalm 110:1 tells us that God has Christ sitting at his right hand until His enemies are removed. The Lord said unto my Lord, “Sit Thou at my right hand until I make Thine enemies thy footstool.” This triumphant statement is joyfully sighted in the New Testament over and over and over again! The expectation to throughout the New Testament is of Christ’s total victory in time, in history. In Psalm 92 David declares, “In His day shall the righteous flourish in abundance of peace, as long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth.They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow down before Him and His enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring presents, the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him, all nations shall serve Him. His name shall endure forever, His shall be continued as long as the sun and men shall be blessed in Him all nations shall call him blessed. Blessed be the Lord God the God of Israel and blessed be His glorious name forever and let the whole earth be filled with His glory, Amen, and Amen.

Many, many more verses can be sighted. But it is enough to say that the bible does not look backward to the garden of Eden but forward to the promised land and beyond that to Messiah, to a worldwide triumph of the kingdom of God and then to Christ’s second coming. That the expectation of the early church was victory appears clearly in Revelations 6:9-10:

“And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:

And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?”

 

The saints expected judgement and victory very soon. They are told to wait, that it will come in God’s time and the promised outcome is proclaimed in Revelations 11:16. “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign forever and ever.”

In 1 Corinthians 15:24-27 we are told of the sequence of the events. “Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God even the Father, when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign until He hast put all enemies under His foot. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death, for He has put all things under His feet. And when he saith all things are put under Him it is manifest that he is excepted which did put all things under Him.”

Paul here speaks of the end of the world... He makes no reference to any coming of Christ before the end. During almost all of church history and only recently has it been believed to be otherwise, and verses 20-23 Paul tells us that at the time the general resurrection will take place. Charles Hodge clearly sets forth its meaning in his commentary on 1 Corinthians, and I quote:

“When the end comes Christ is to deliver up the kingdom to his father. What does this mean? The Scriptures constantly teach that Christ’s kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and of His dominion there is no end. And what saith then, can he be said to deliver up His kingdom? It must be remembered that the scriptures speak of a three fold kingdom as belonging to Christ. [0:25:46]

First, that which necessarily belongs to Him as a divine purchase, extending over all creatures and of which he can never divest Himself. Second, that which belongs to Him as the incarnate Son of God, extending over His own people. That is also everlasting, He will forever remain the head and sovereign of the great being. Third, that dominion to which He was exalted after His resurrection, when all power in heaven and earth was committed to his hand. This kingdom which he exercised as a {?} the God-man, and which extends all over all principalities and powers. He is to deliver up when the work of redemption is accomplished. He was invested with this dominion in His mediatorial character for the purpose of carrying on His work to its consummation. When that is done, when He has subdued all His enemies, then He will no longer reign over the universe as Mediator but only as God, while His headship over His people is to continue forever.” End of quote.

Paul speaks here of an accomplished and triumphant kingdom, of the resurrection of the dead, the second coming of Christ, and the death of Death. John Calvin understood verse 24 to mean -as have most commentators- that Jesus Christ at the end abrogates and abolishes all other authorities than His own. The great commision calls for precisely this, all rule, all authority, and all powers outside of Christ are to be put down. And all nations are to be disciplined under the kingship of Christ. In verse 25 we are plainly told that Jesus Christ retains this kingship over the most of all pre-second coming world until all His enemies are put under His feet.

The second coming does not at once follow this triumph according to the prophets, an era of triumph known as the Millenium, a myriad of years precedes the end, and Christ reigns through His people. Then the last enemy, Death, is destroyed. The destruction of death follows the destruction of the fall’s first consequence as well as its cause, Sin. The prophet Isaiah tells us that children will not die in infancy and anyone dying under a hundred years is seen as the cursed of God. The effects of sin is Death and as Christ’s kingdom triumphs in history not only is sin replaced with righteousness or justice but death itself is rolled back. Man’s life expectancy lengthens. Death is Christ’s last enemy and at His coming again it is destroyed. Sin was nullified in its power and claims by Christ’s atoning death.

And as Christ’s kingdom grows sin is pushed back and a new humanity in Christ, our new Adam, is established in all it’s power. According to verse 27, before the end God puts all things under Christ’s feet.

Hebrews 2:8 tells us this, this echoing Psalm 110:1 and 72:7-11 and 17-19. Of course, the words, “Thou hast put all things under His feet” come from Psalm 8:6. There is no limit to this dominion, the only exception is Jesus Christ Himself. All else is put under the Triune God. Calvin said of this verse, and I quote, “That Christ will then restore the Kingdom which he hast received, that we may plead holy to God. Nor will he in this way resign the kingdom, he will transfer it in a manner from his humanity to his glorious divinity, because the way of approach will then be opened up from which our infirmity now keeps us back. Thus then Christ will be subjected to the Father because the veil being then removed we shall openly behold God reigning in His majesty and Christ’s humanity will then no longer be interposed to keep us back from a closer view of God.” Unquote.

we have referred to Isaiah 6520-25 which speaks of the millenium peace, the longevity of life, prosperity, the end of sorrows, and much more, as marking the triumph of Christ. In this world as men, women, and children, nations, gentiles, and all are made members of Christ’s new heaven and new earth which began with His resurrection from the dead. 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 Paul speaks of Christ’s as the first fruits of the resurrection. Calvin writing on the blessings of Christ’s triumphant history, in what is now called the millenium, wrote in his comments on Isaiah 65:21-22 and I quote, “They shall build houses and inhabit them. In these verses He mentions what is written in the law, for these are the blessings of the law. That they that have obeyed God shall dwell in the houses which they have built and gather fruit from the trees which they have planted. On the other hand, the disobedient shall be expelled from the houses which they have built and give way to foreigners, and shall be deprived of the fruit of the trees which they have planted. [0:33:20]

The Lord says Isaiah shall protect you from that curse so as to enjoy your property.” Unquote. These texts make clear that the biblical mandate is a call to dominion, to knowledge, righteousness or justice, and holiness. Man was commanded in Eden to work under God to make the Earth God’s kingdom realm. And in the great commision man is reinstated in this dominion calling. Our federal covenant head in this calling is the Last Adam, Jesus Christ. We are the new humanity of the last Adam. The Kingdom requires submission to Christ and faithful service to Him. A new creation of which our Lord is the first fruit and of which we are all members

When fully instituted is the eternal kingdom and the eternal victory of Christ, the Millenium... coming as the climax of Christ’s historical victory through us, receives the new heavens and the earth. For us it is now imperative to see the promised land for us in history as this world. The holy land is now the whole earth! We must repossess it for the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Amen, so be it.