Law and Dominion

Conquest

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Law and Dominion

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Genre: Lecture

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Dictation Name: RR263A2

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Our Lord tells us that the gates of hell shall not prevail against His church or kingdom. The word prevail means hold out against, so that the image there is of the army of the Lord besieging the very gates of hell and overcoming. St. Paul tells us that we are more than conquers through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is important then if we are faithful to scripture to be prepared to conquer. Our concern therefore must be how to take over the world.

We have a great advantage in this struggle. Not only do we have the Lord on our side but, we have the enemy that we do; Humanistic Statism. Statism is incredibly inefficient. Very few things malfunction as much as the bureaucracy. Given the huge sums they take in the results are abysmally poor. Speaking of poor, if the poor of this country appropriated for poverty, every person on welfare would get $40,000 minimum. They don't get anything resembling that sum. The difference goes to perpetuating the bureaucracy.

God commands us to go forth and conquer. And we have a means of financing that conquest; tithing. A Christian financing for dominion for the kingdom is the tithe. There are three tithes. The Lord's tithe which is every six years in seven and which is to go to the Levites, and the Levites were to receive one tenth of that tithe; or the priests were to receive one tenth of the tithe meaning one percent of your income. This is an important fact. It means that the church cannot be a major institution. It is a place of worship. The state receives a head tax. A poll tax. A half shekel for every male 20 years old and older. So the state in scripture is a very limited institution. In other words what our Lord intends through the tithe is not the institutionalization of life. Not as controlled by church or state but, by the tithe through the variety of tithe agencies.

This tells us that the history of Christendom has seen some bypass; the church as the main institution dominating society and then the state. Whereas with the tithe we are to create a variety of agencies to undertake social financing in every area, in the name of the Lord; health, education, welfare, and so on; the Levites, remember, received nine tenths of the tax. With a little of that they provided the music and the care of the sanctuary. The rest went for their basic task, which according to Deuteronomy 33:10 was instruction. Instruction. The major function of the Levites therefore was to teach, old and young. Christian schools, universities, professional schools, educational foundations. All these and more are basic to the tithing concept.

But then the second tithe was the rejoicing tithe whereby we are to rejoice before the Lord. Basic to much of scripture is the doctrine of the Sabbath; one day in seven, one year in seven, and then a portion of ones income as a tithe to be spent on rejoicing before the Lord.

And then the third tithe was the poor tithe every third and sixth years, so that the people of God were to remember the widows, the orphans, the strangers, the sick, the needy.

Christians have surrendered government to the state because they have forgotten how to tithe. But, today we are seeing the revival of the principle of tithing and as a result conquest in one area after another. In this session I'm going to deal briefly with a few areas. And I'm going to move in on one or two. Next year we will go into depth in a number of subjects but first and foremost the Christian School movement.

Today its growing power and strength is becoming a major source of concern across the country. One Christian school group alone is today establishing four new schools every day. The growth of the Christian schools it is so phenomenal that by the end of this century by the admission of the humanist there will be no public schools left. Moreover these Christian schools now are moving into ghetto school areas and ministering to minority groups. And there is an intense hunger on the part of minority peoples for Christian schooling for their Children.

Washington DC has a large black population. Almost none of them are Catholic but the parochial schools are 74% black. Black mothers going to work in order to put their children in Christian schools. The protestant schools have many blacks as well. The Christian school movement is creating a different population. Consider the fact that between twenty and thirty percent of the Christian School Children today of all children today are in Christian schools. They are commanding increasingly the better element. And you begin to appreciate the fact that before too many years the leadership in this country will come out of the Christian schools. This is a frightening fact to the humanists. They know that unless they control the schools or destroy them they are finished. And this is why there is a constant persecution in courts, the attempt by state boards of education to impose regulations, rules, controls on Christian schools; in order to control them, in order to destroy them.

Then a second area; welfare. The Bible commands us to be mindful of the poor. I will return to that in our closing hour to review the churches policy here over the centuries in terms of scripture. But, for some time now the church has abandoned that responsibility and the deacons have become officers without an office; without a function. It sometimes distresses Christians to be reminded of the fact that they have a responsibility to the poor in their own fellowship, and as far as possible beyond their fellowship. I know that I talked about ten years ago I spent a week with the church Sundays and weekdays, speaking about 15 times all told. And I lost all my appeal when I spoke about their responsibility to their members. They were giving half a million dollars to missions at home and abroad. But, I spoke about the need to minister to the sick and the shut-ins in their own circle, how many people there are and most congregations who can no longer drive; maybe the wife can no longer take care of the housekeeping because she is temporarily or permanently sick. People who need someone to come in, take them shopping, or someone to come in once a week and help with the house cleaning. People are more ready to give their money than to give of themselves, and they aren't too read to give of their money.

But this is the problem that faces us and the church has neglected for generations its responsibility to the poor and the needy all around us. But, now we are seeing a change. I have been involved in one case; the Roll-off case. Dr. Lester (Rolloff?) of Corpus Christi Texas. He's a radio evangelist. About thirty years ago as a result of letters coming to him asking, 'Brother Roll-off I have a delinquent child do you know of any Christian agency that could take him?" And he had to say no. And after saying that two or three times he realized this is the Lord's way of telling me I have a responsibility. And so he began to minister to such children; to set up homes and schools for them. He has three in Texas and others in two other states in the south. They take in all children without regard to race color or creed. He is also now very deeply into a ministry to elderly people; providing homes for them. His work is phenomenal. He takes hard core delinquents in many cases, who have been sent by there by the courts. There are girls who are prostitutes; some as young as eleven. Boys who are narcotic pushers and in a few cases actually murderers. His record of rehabilitation is between 90 and 95%.

He has been persecuted, he has just finished an eight year stint in and out of court and twice in jail. In April judge Matthews ruled in his favor, and we hope the state of Texas will not appeal. But today he is planning to extend the facilities there after paying off a million dollars in debt for legal fees so that he will house the equivalent of a university population of delinquents. It distresses him that last year he turned aside 15,000 delinquents. No room. He plans to take them in.

Today, and the Rockefeller commission and others have recognized this fact; the pattern that he has set is being followed by close to a hundred other like institutions all over the country. Christians are waking up; they are moving out to conquer. The area of health; look around you and you will still see evidence of Christian hospitals. Once all hospitals were operated by Christians, some bore the name of denominations: Lutheran, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Catholic, and so on. But, little by little health care which was born among Christians. The origin of all universities is out of the church. The origin of all hospitals is out of the ministry of Christians as a part of their deaconate. Christians are beginning to rethink this matter and recognizing this is an area we must reenter and conquer. And in the next generation we shall see the reentry of Christians into the realm of health care.

But this is not all. We are entering into another area now and making dramatic strides in certain areas. The area of courts. Courts? Yes, courts. There was a time when all courts were Christian except for a few that were the King's courts. This was ended by the end of the middle ages into the early modern era. One problem was that the church controlled these courts ultimately. But, in origin they were Christian rather than institutional.

What is happening here? In several urban centers across the country Christian Lawyers have come together and aid we have an impossible situation in the courts. First all too many of the courts are humanistic. Second in our centers it takes four to five years to get a case to court because the courts are so crowded. Let us set up arbitration councils with Christian lawyers, former Christina judges, and see what can be done. When Christians have a controversy one with the other let us go to them, offer our services, have them sign a binding contract to abide by this decision and then turn it over to the arbitration council. This has been an operation for a few years now with very fine results.

Do you see what is beginning to happen? Christians are recognizing that what Paul said to the Corinthians is true when he rebuked them for going to pagan courts. And he said, "What know ye not that you're called to judge the world?" (And the word judge is the word used in the book of Judges to ‘govern’) “and can you not therefore judge or govern your own selves? Are there none among you capable?” The judge took that rebuke from Paul and very early set up arbitration councils which became and what is called erroneously the dark ages, and then the Middle Ages, and into the reformation era courts with a recognized binding power. So that people went in and contracted to abide by the decision.

Most of you perhaps have heard nothing of this. But, we must call it as one newspaper did the Christian School Movement, the quiet revolution. It's a change that is taking place and which will determine the future.

Let us take up still one more, to give you an idea of the kind of thing that is being done and can be done. I pointed out in my Institutes of Biblical Law that the Christian has his duty to help his needy brother and to also lend without interest to a brother in need. Not a business loan but, a loan to help him. There are churches now across country that have set up a loan fund in their own circle. Members contribute to the loan fund. Members who are in need, young and old and emergency situations; surgery or some crisis or accident; and they can go and borrow without interest and pay when they are able, and if not it is forgiven. But, thus far the experience rather generally it is not only repaid but something added to help the next person who applies.

Now this is simply an application of something that was stated long ago by God through Moses and which for the past couple of centuries we have forgotten and we've acted as though it was no longer binding upon us. But, what it is doing as it revives is to bind people together in a congregation. The family that has to make a loan, has to borrow the money, finds that it not only gains the money without interest but the love, the concern, the help, the prayers of everyone in the church; so that a sense of being a family in the Lord is returning.

And one pastor told me that there was nothing that had done more for his congregation than the loan fund. That had brought the young and the old together. It had made them mindful that problems are not limited to my own family circle, and I have a responsibility to my brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. Now we are going to deal in the succeeding hours with Government. What it means, and how it is our duty to take back government from the state. And the law of God is a blue print whereby we are to take government back from the state; to make it something that belongs to Jesus Christ and under Him to be exercised by us. We cannot leave things in the hands of church, school, or state. The Christian man is commanded to tithe. He is the administrator of that tithe. He must give to agencies including the church and the Christian school and must exercise an oversight because it is the Lords' money and he as an administrator thereof must use it wisely. And see to it that it is used wisely to bring everything into captivity for Jesus Christ. It is the tax that God requires. The bible speaks of the tithe as a requirement and offerings are only those gifts which are above and over are tithe. Tithes and offerings.

And Samuel inspired of God told Israel when they chose a king what they had chosen. They would pay more than a tithe to him. They would be tithing not only their income and their animals, their produce, but their very sons and daughters and their lives. And this is what we've been doing. We are giving more than 40% of our income now to local state and federal agencies through taxation, and we are oppressed, and God says through Samuel when you cry out in that day I will not hear you. And people have been crying out all my life time against what we see today, and God has not heard them, because He will not hear until they turn and repent and the word repent means in the Greek to change your direction. It isn't a matter of words but a change of life; until they begin tithing, until they begin to give themselves, their children, their time, and their prayers to almighty God, and say: “as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” There is no area in life and thought that is not to be brought into captivity for Jesus Christ. And we need to recognize that, and then go forth and bring all things into captivity to Him.

One of the most interesting things that happened in recent years was that in our first journal of Christian Reconstruction which is still available on creationism we had a Harvard PHD in math write an article on God and mathematics, and then in the symposium on Van Tillian thought the Foundations of Christian Scholarship edited by Gary North, Dr. Poythress wrote another chapter on God and numbers, pointing out how apart form the doctrine of the Trinity there is no foundation for mathematics. We had students, graduate students in math all over the country waiting for the publication of those two articles in excitement, and it created no end of stir. Even more delightful was the fact that in open courtroom after another where I have been a witness since 1978 in trials of Christian schools as well as of institutions like (Roll-offs?) the state attorney has triumphantly come up with a question trying to prove that the Christian school a part from Bible is really secular and should be controlled by the state. “And do you mean to say there is a Christian perspective on math?” And then I proceed to cite Dr. Poythress’s thesis and it leaves them really dumb founded.

But, of course what we must believe is that since all creation is made by the triune God, all things were made by Him and without Him there was not anything made that was made, nothing has any meaning apart from Him; and you destroy the foundations of everything including mathematics. And when you deny Him you end up in total relativism. And Poythress points out what happens to mathematics when the Christian theistic thesis is removed. There is an eloquent testimony to that fact and I'll conclude with this citation, a book published in 74 or 75 by Dr. Gunther Stent professor of molecular biology at the University of California at Berkley. It's a book about the passing of the golden age. The golden age was the dream of the humanist. A world order in which God was abolished and which man now becomes free. Free for what though? Meaninglessness. And so he said everything is declining. Art has become a game. Men putting paint on the wheels of a motorcycle and riding back and forth with different colored paint on their wheels on a piece of canvas. You have John Gage in music tape recording street sounds and playing three or four tapes on a symphony stage. And he said you now have increasingly no great concern for discovery in the sciences. All that is left with man is the pleasure principle. We are all going to become Polynesians the world round and in two centuries mankind will disappear.

Natural History's review of it was a delight. They bought his thesis except in the closing paragraph the reviewer said with Stent's prediction mankind would disappear, it would commit suicide. He said I cannot bide Dr. Stent's optimism. There is a delightful cartoon with the same thesis. A bearded, toga robed prophet parading with a sign on a busy city street and the sign reads “We are doomed. The world will not end.”

It will not end because in the name of Jesus Christ we are going to take over.