Living by Faith - Romans

Natural Privilege Versus Predestination

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Living by Faith

Lesson: 36-64

Genre: Talk

Track: 036

Dictation Name: RR311S36

Location/Venue:

Year: ?

Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep His testimonies, and that seek Him with a whole heart. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God, we come into Thy presence again, rejoicing in the sure mercies, the unfailing care, and the glory and the majesty of Thy word. Bless us as we give ourselves to the study of the things of Thy kingdom, and make us strong therein, that we might be more than conquerors through Christ our Lord; in His name we pray, amen.

Our scripture this morning is Romans 9:6-8. Romans 9:6-8, and our subject: Natural Privilege Versus Predestination. Romans 9 beginning with the 6th verse.

“6 Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:

7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.

8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.”

At this point it is important to look backward in Romans briefly in order to understand what Paul is going to say in this passage and the succeeding ones. Paul began by the great declaration that: “The just shall live by faith.” You recall, we saw that this does not merely mean that the just are saved by faith, the word: ‘shall live by faith’ is inclusive of salvation; but it is much broader. We are not only saved by faith, but we are to live all our days by faith, and faith is the gift of God; it is not something that is our own.

Then, next, Paul in Romans 4:24-25 makes a very interesting point with regard to our salvation. We are so used to hearing the language of having been saved by ‘His atoning death’ which Paul himself says, but we forget that Paul places the emphasis on the resurrection, that by His death and resurrection He has redeemed us. His death alone would not have done it, had He not destroyed the power of sin and death by His resurrection. So we have our salvation by the grace of God, and we are to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, and we are told next that all of this was done by the great miracle of God, Christ’s death and resurrection.

Then we come in Romans 8 to the great fact of predestination, which tells us again that it is God’s work and not mans. Now Paul in Romans 9 is going to tell us very specifically what this involves and what it means; and it is important for us to understand it. People are so busy arguing as to whether you should believe in predestination or not, that they don’t take time to understand what it means. Our justification, our salvation, our regeneration, all of this accomplished by the power of God, by His miraculous action in history, in Christ, and then in our lives; and then His predestinating action.

What all this does is to destroy natural privilege. It is not an accident of history that so much hatred has been manifested by the powers that be against Christianity. No other religion has faced the same kind of hostility, and with good reason. But against Christianity, all through the centuries the powers that be have raised their hand in hatred, and have sought to destroy it; because the powers that be put their stress on natural privilege, and the whole thrust of the Bible is against that. The enlightenment rulers were very hostile to Christianity, although they disguised it, because they saw it as destructive of natural privilege; this is why the Magnificat of Mary was hated by rulers, Protestant and Catholic, because they thought it was too hostile to natural privilege, especially in the words: “He hath showed strength with His arm, He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, He hath put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree; He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away.” No king wanted this kind of thing read in any church.

Similarly, in a recent work, Christopher Hill reported that he encountered the fact that when Charles the second came back to the throne, in at least one church, if not across England, the sacrament of communion was administered on one Sunday to gentlemen and the nobility, and on the following Sunday to the commoners, the poor, to ordinary people. Natural privilege.

The Bible militates against this. Grace and predestination remove the sovereignty and imitative from man and place it where it belongs, in the hand of God. Grace and predestination nullify natural privilege. this is why Sovereign Grace and Biblical Law go together.

Van Til has made clear that God’s sovereignty requires theonomy, requires Biblical law. The just are to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Our atonement, our regeneration, our justification, the conditions of our life, the terms of it, all come from the hand of God. They are not natural privileges.

You remember, I believe it was the Duchess of Huntington who was very much appalled with what Wesley and Whitfield were preaching, the idea that she could be saved only on the same terms as her servant; that was repulsive.

The forces of modern revolution, much more radically than the monarchs of old, insist on natural privilege. The divine right of kings was pail to the insistence on the sovereignty of the people, and all power to the people. The great champion, the great philosopher of natural privilege was Rousseau, who was militantly anti-Christian.

For all revolutionists, anything which limits man’s natural privilege must be destroyed, and nothing limits it more than the doctrine of predestination.

It is interesting that (Eric Von Qunelt Ladeen?) a Catholic scholar, political scientist of some brilliance, in an article on Rousseau versus Calvin said that the doctrine of Calvin was more theocentric than Catholic doctrine, and that the battle of the future whether he liked it himself or not, was in essence a battle between Rousseau and Calvin.

The negation of natural privilege of course began with the birth of the church, indeed with the Old Testament covenant. The negation of natural privilege was important in the Medieval era, important with the Reformation, and is important to anyone who takes the doctrine of scripture seriously.

An interesting aspect of this, God centered living, the negation of natural privilege is to be found in Mrs. Jonathan Goforth, the wife of a Presbyterian missionary who went to China in 1880 or 1882. And on a furlough back to the United States Mrs. Goforth had looked forward to planning her life in terms of more time with her children; and then realized that the work made demands on her, and she wrestled with it for a while, and then wrote: “I confess the sin of planning my own life.” Of putting her natural privileges ahead of Gods requirements.

Now this is Paul’s thrust in Romans 9, it is against natural privilege. The natural privilege of all, and because this is a very personal matter to him, of Israel. It is a painful fact for Paul. As one whose background was a Pharisee of Pharisees, a most zealous Israelite, he loved his blood family; but he loved God more. And so he begins in this passage by saying that Gods word is not nullified by Israel’s rejection.

“Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:”

Not all Israel is the true Israel. This was not a new doctrine with Paul, it was a doctrine set forth by the prophets. It still exists in some Orthodox Jewish circles. Sanford Mills who has written a book on a Hebrew look at the book of Romans, said that when his family came over from Poland in 1921 as Polish Jews, they regarded most of the Jews, especially the German Jews, as not true Jews, not really Jews, because they belonged to the Reformed synagogue. This was simply a manifestation of the old premise going back to the Old Testament, that they are not all Israel which are of Israel.

Paul says that the governing fact is not natural selection, but divine election; that the purpose of God is not dependent on men. Then in verse 7 he says:

“Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.”

Besides Isaac, Abraham had sons by Hagar and Keturah, 8 sons in all. But only one of them, Isaac, was chosen to be the head of the covenant people. The word ‘called’ refers here to vocation and destination; Isaac is the line of promise.

Then in verse 8: “That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.”

Moffat in his paraphrase renders this verse thus: “Know that it is through Isaac that your offspring shall be reckoned.” meaning that instead of God’s children being the children born to Him by natural descent, it is the children of the promise who are reckoned His true offspring.

Paul says in Galatians 4:28 “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.” And Paul makes clear whether we are Jews or Gentiles, we are Abrahams seed. For, as he says in Galatians 3:29 “if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

Indeed, the Jewish privilege is not by blood but by sovereign grace throughout the Old Testament, for as Paul says in 1st Corinthians 15:50 “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.”

Well, Paul has made a tremendous point, and this was a source of battle over the centuries. Rome recognized that Christianity was a dangerous and revolutionary force, because it was going to overturn the whole order of things according to natural privilege, and throughout the Middle Ages this was again the problem. The great struggle of the Middle Ages was as to whether the local Lords and kings could name the bishops and Abbotts, select them, and invest them. There were two reasons for this, first it was important to control these important offices, it added to their power; but second, they believed in natural privilege, and while to an extent natural privilege functioned in the church, the basic thrust of the church throughout the Middle Ages was against natural privilege; that those who served in the church, whether as a parish priest or as an abbot or a bishop or an archbishop, or a pope, were men who represented not natural privilege, but God’s grace; and one of the key reasons now forgotten, now lost, as to why Hildebrand when he became Pope insisted on Sacerdotal celibacy was to break the whole power of natural privilege, and to insist that grace had to govern, not natural privilege. Because natural privilege was deeply imbedded in the feudal system and in the monarchies that it was threatening to take over the church and make it an area where natural privilege prevailed.

In the modern era the same thing is true. All significant claims to power in the modern era are based on natural privilege. With the Nazis it was Nordic blood, with the democracies “Vox Populi Vox Dei” the voice of the people is the voice of God, the people as the sovereigns and the privileged ones. With Marxism the dictatorship of the proletariat, with Hinduism the caste system, with racism it is whether you are black or white or yellow or whatever the case may be. All of these systems stress natural privilege, and what Paul is doing in Romans 9 is not arguing for predestination, what he is saying is that predestination undermines the whole world of natural privilege.

He is saying that God must of necessity confound all such views, that God will overturn, overturn, overturn, until He comes whose right it is. Until His way prevails, until Christ’s kingdom and the premises of His word, His authority govern, not natural privilege.

But the world wants to stress natural privilege; it has always sought to stress it. It has gone to such lengths that very often it has passed laws prohibiting certain kinds of clothing for a people who are not of the nobility, or of royalty, that you had to have natural privilege even to dress well, natural privilege. The world always seeks to enforce it, and left to itself every culture outside of Christ quickly establishes it as the governing thing, and the more deeply established the culture, the more rigid the caste lines become.

But God must of necessity confound and destroy all natural privilege, first because God is the Lord, He is the sovereign, and no natural privilege can have standing before him; and second, because man is fallen. All of mans natural privileges and orders will be infected by the poison of mans sin, his desire to be his own God.

Thus we see that there are far reaching implications at stake in Paul’s emphasis on predestination. The church has failed in simply defending the doctrine. What needs to be done is to say that apart from this doctrine the world will be reduced to slavery by the theory of natural privilege, that outside of Christ every culture has been a culture which emphasizes slavery, emphasizes natural privilege to the destruction of everything else. This is the great doctrine of freedom under God. Let us pray.

Thy word oh Lord is truth, and we thank Thee that Thy word destroys natural privilege, and establishes Thy supernatural grace, Thy kingdom, Thy law word. Make us zealous oh Lord to establish the things that are of Thee, and to be strong in Thy service, to the end that the kingdoms of this world might become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ. In His name we pray, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Audience Member] You are using the words natural privilege, are there other words that you could use, in other words, free will?

[Rushdoony] Well, no, it is a little different, but it is associated with natural privilege, it is a manifestation of natural privilege; so those who argue for free will want to establish natural privilege by saying: ‘man is the determiner.’ So it is a related concept.

[Audience Member] If you are for natural privilege does that make you an antinomian automatically?

[Rushdoony] Yes, if you are for natural privilege you don’t want Gods law, you want man’s law above all else. Yes?

[Otto Scott] Why haven’t there been more literature on anti Christianity?

[Rushdoony] A good question, why hasn’t there been more literature on anti Christianity. One of the problems is that Christians have been too ready to surrender the media and educational institutions to the opposition, so that in the modern age all the channels of dissemination of such knowledge have been controlled by the enemy. I think perhaps the mentality can best be demonstrated, the mentality of both Protestants and Catholics, by the index of forbidden books. This was a negative action. What it said was: “Certain books are unfit for you to read.” How much better would it have been if books had been published which would have undermined everything that the books placed on the index were dealing with?

For example, today I get all kinds of things in the mail telling me what is wrong with the films and what is wrong with various books, and what is wrong with the things we see on television, all of which is true enough; these are a kind of a modern index. But, why nothing done to replace those with something else? We are almost alone in trying to do that, and we are providing a counter opinion. Something that goes after what the opposition is doing and exposes it, and presents the Christian perspective.

So this has been the problem, negation alone is not enough, there has to be aggressive action, and anti Christianity has been doing that for a long time.

Yes John?

[Audience Member] Well negation I think follows quite logically from the premillennial eschatology, it seems to be a very natural corollary to the premillennial eschatology. The other thing is that it seems like election and predestination and hierarchy are the exact counterparts to natural privilege and elitism, etc. I think that one of the primary problems that we are having right now in the church if I had to pick on doctrine that had to be preached in all the churches at one end is predestination, because that seems to me to be the core of Christian resistance against the invasion of humanism, it really seems to be the core in terms of the one doctrine which uniquely attacks the major tenants of humanism, it seems to me like is predestination and election.

[Rushdoony] Charles Norris Cochrane in his classic work: Christianity and Classical Culture dealt with that paradox, that the early church by proclaiming predestination seemed to be against human freedom, and the pagan philosophers were champions of human freedom; but they were the ones, these pagan philosophers, who produced the thinking of environmentalism and the like, which made man a pawn of his environment, whereas the Christians with their predestination were the champions of freedom. Boettner in his book on predestination has shown the same thing. Our faith is the one that makes for freedom.

[Audience Member] …all the opposition, what the majority of the Christians churches can do is merely try to get along in a pluralistic society, they can’t offer any real positive alternative.

[Rushdoony] Yes, they can only be people on the fringes. Reinhold Niebhur in his first book made a statement which I have never forgotten, I believe the book went back to 1929 when he was a pastor in Detroit, and my father knew him at the time. He said that the church in our day was too often no more than a Red Cross; the Red Cross is not in the battle, it is on the sidelines picking up the wounded and trying to minister to them; and he said the church should be in the forefront of the battle.

Yes?

[Audience Member] Actually, would the sovereignty of God be the essence, the key? Predestination is a result of Gods sovereignty?

[Rushdoony] It is the manifestation in our history and in our lives of the sovereignty of God.

[Audience Member] …Predestination is only a part of Gods sovereignty and control of all things.

[Rushdoony] Yes, that is right. Any other questions or comments? Well, if not, let us bow our heads then in prayer.

All glory be to Thee oh God who has given us such great promises, and such great certainties, that day by day we may move in Thy strength and power. Grant oh Lord that we take hands off our lives and commit them into Thy keeping, that we may be strong in Thee and ever blessed by Thy grace.

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.