Systematic Theology - Church

The Ark and the Presence

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Lesson: Government

Genre: Speech

Track: 20

Dictation Name: 20 The Ark and the Presence

Year: 1960’s – 1970’s

O Lord our God, unto whom dominion belongs, we come unto thee mindful that the heathen rage and the nations, the ungodly peoples take counsel together, that thou, O Lord, who sittest in the circle of the heavens shall laugh. Thou shalt hold them in derision. Smite them, O Lord, with the rod of iron if they will not be converted unto thee, if they raise thy hands against thy church and thy kingdom. Bless us, O Lord, in our faithfulness unto thee, and make us zealous in the defense of the things that belong to thy kingdom. In Jesus name. Amen.

Our scripture is from Exodus 40:34-38, and our subject is The Ark and the Presence. “Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys: but if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.”

The doctrine of the Ark of the covenant is basic to the doctrine of the church, but it is, in our day, a very much neglected and bypassed article of the faith. This is due in part to unhappy controversies and the hostility and the ill-will which has occurred all too often over the centuries between Jews and Christians.

Just briefly, to glance at some of the high points of that conflict, in the very early days of Christianity, Judea was hostile to Christians as systematic, a persecution ensued and because the church, for the first century was overwhelmingly Jewish in its origin, and for many centuries thereafter, had a very strongly Jewish coloration. This hostility continued for a time. The Fall of Jerusalem in 66-70 A.D. intensified that hostility. After the Fall of Rome, however, it abated very definitely, and on the frontier of Barbarian Europe, Christian missionaries and Jewish merchants worked together as a force for civilizing the Barbarians. However, with the Crusades, hatred began and this time, the persecution of Jews by the Christians, and the result was again, disastrous. Theologically, these conflicts had far-reaching implications. I can only touch on them in a few sentences.

First of all, after the Fall of Jerusalem, out of hostility to the Christians, the rabbis began to reinterpret the Old Testament, and began to downgrade everything which pointed to Christ. One of the casualties of their reinterpretation of the Old Testament was the doctrine of atonement. After the year 1000 when Christians began to persecute the Jews, they began to the downgrade the Old Testament, and the conclusion we see today in the Antinomianism, which is so relevant among Christians. We actually have large segments of Protestantism where churches speak of themselves as New Testament Christians, and who downgrade emphatically the Old Testament.

As a result, many points of doctrine have suffered badly because of this implicit hostility to the Old Testament. One of these is the doctrine of the covenant. As a result, there has been a lack of interest in the Ark of the Covenant. The consequences have been spiritual anemia for the church.

Let us first of all turn to the meaning of the Ark of the Covenant and its implications for the church, and the life of the church. The best summary of this doctrine we fine in Eiler’s Old Testament theology. The Ark was the symbol and vehicle of the presence of the revelation of the Lord among his people. It was the manifestation also of his visible presence among his people in that the Ark was the place where the glory of God resided. We have here the doctrine of the real presence of the Lord. It is basic to the Bible. The Old Testament is emphatic that the real presence of God, the glory of God, dwelt with his people, that the place of his residence was the Ark, and that he went with his people whithersoever they went. But the sad fact is that the doctrine is neglected. Even more, most Protestants are fearful of the doctrine of the real presence. To them, it seems to point either to Rome or to Lutheranism. Rather, it points to the Bible, to the Ark of the Covenant, and to many aspects of scripture.

We would have to say, in fact, that the doctrine of the real covenant as we encounter it in Rome and in Lutheranism, is too much based on Greek philosophy and too little on scripture. The Ark is called, in scripture, the throne of God. We are told in Jeremiah, Jeremiah 3:16-17, that in time, in the New Jerusalem, God’s people shall become God’s throne, his Ark, and the glory will be such that the real presence in the new era will surpass that of the old, and the Ark will be forgotten. The Ark is also described repeatedly as God’s footstool.

There were three parts to the Ark, and the first was the cherubim. We first encounter the cherubim in Genesis 3:24, they bar the Garden of Eden to sinners. Again, in Exodus 25:30, they protect and shade the Ark. In Psalm 18:11, they are the cloudy chariots on which the Lord rides. In Ezekiel 10:1 following and Revelation 6:4 following, they are called living creatures. We are told in our text that the glory of God, his real presence, was the pillar of fire and of cloud which accompanied Israel, which led the way as they went through the wilderness, and which resided in the tabernacle and filled it. The entire area around the tabernacle manifested the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. The real presence of God was with his people.

The cherubim are a mystery to us because they are the manifestations of the presence of God. They signal that God has come into his creation, and since God is beyond our ability to comprehend, so, too, are the cherubim which accompany his manifestation. The cherubim reflect his glory and make him accessible to man’s eyes. They evoke in appearance many natural phenomenon, indicating that this world reveals God to us, and that God’s real presence in it transfigures things round about him.

We are told in Exodus 25:22, concerning the mercy seat, the second part of the Ark; first the cherubim, second the mercy seat. God says, “There I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat.” The mercy seat signifies atonement. This is the ground of communion between God and man. Man, as a sinner, cannot approach unto God apart from his grace and mercy, apart from the atonement which God himself provides, and so the throne of God is the mercy seat, because his covenant with his people and his presence among his people is an act of grace.

Then, the third part of the Ark, the tables of the law which are within the Ark. Eiler comments on it and his comment is excellent. “This means that God sits enthroned in Israel on the ground of the covenant of law which he has made with Israel. The testimony is preserved in the Ark as a treasure, a jewel, but with this goes a second consideration. While the law is certainly in the first place a testimony to the will of God toward the people, it is also a testimony against the sinful people, a continual record of accusation so to speak against their sins in the sight of the holy God, and now, when the mercy seat is over the tables, it is declared that God’s grace which provides an atonement or covering for the iniquity of the people, stands above his penal justice.”

The real presence of God was in the Holy of Holies, but in Messianic age, Jeremiah says the real presence will be among his people to such a degree that the Ark will be forgotten. The real presence, therefore, is a basic doctrine of scripture. It is blindness to neglect this doctrine and to fail to see its centrality to scripture. The Bible tells us in Ezekiel 11:22 following that when Israel, or Judah rather, sinner, the glory of God left the tabernacle, or temple, left the holy place, and left the people and abandoned them because they were blind to him. If we are blind to the real presence of God, will we not lose the glory of God? Dare we neglect his real presence? The church has {?} to see the real presence and the communion only is to limit his real presence to one facet of its reality. To deny this doctrine is to court disaster. It leaves the Christian alone before an alien world, and for the modern Christian, God is very remote.

Catholics and Lutherans have at least seen the real presence in the elements of communion, although they are eroding that doctrine very rapidly. The charismatics at least have seen it in some activities of the Spirit, and without agreeing with tongues, one would have to say that the belief of charismatics in the real presence has given them power, but the real presence is a total fact. The Ark of the Covenant moved with Israel, it was present with all of Israel. The Ark of the Covenant led the way. It protected, it guided, it led God’s people.

The New Testament tells us that this is now true of us. In Hebrews 13:5-6, we read, “For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” Now these words of Paul echo numerous statements in the Old Testament which have to do with the glory of God, that presence which resided in the Ark and was with the people of God whithersoever they went. Here are some of the passages which deal with this. Genesis 28:15, “And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest , and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.”

Then, these words of Deuteronomy 31:6 and 8. “Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” “And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.”

And again, to Joshua, in Joshua 1:5, “There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear. The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?”

Psalm 27:1, and again in Psalm 56:4, 11-12, “In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. Every day they wrest my words: all their thoughts are against me for evil.” “ In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me. Thy vows are upon me, O God: I will render praises unto thee.”

Psalm 118:6, “The Lord is on my side, I will not fear: what can man do unto me?”

If we try to weaken the force of these words from the Old Testament by saying that these were promises to very great saints, we cannot alter the fact that Paul summarizes all these promises and applies them to us. The truth is that in both testaments, we have the same God and the same real presence. He is the Lord, the same yesterday and today, and forever.

The Westminster Confession of Faith in the first chapter of the holy scriptures declares that all Christians, when they read the Bible, believing, have the inward illumination of the Holy Spirit. That’s the real presence. The real presence is with the church, and with the Lord’s people whithersoever they shall go. This is the plain promise of scripture. We cannot limit, therefore, the real presence to Bible study or to the elements. Is it not rather a basic fact of the life of the church and in the life of the believer? It is a serious offense against the living God to limit the scope of his real presence. To deny this doctrine makes a Eunuch out of the church and out of the believer.

In 451 A.D., the very time the Council of Chalcedon was meeting, a large number of Nahars{?}, or noblemen of Armenia, and a number of the bishops, including one of them whose name was Sahog{?} Isaac Rushdoony, and some priests, were taken hostage by the Persian court and ordered to adjour{?} their faith. One of the men, a priest named Gevot{?} declared, “We are not alone. There is no empty space where Christ our King is not present and is not revealed.” The real presence is a fact of church history. To deny it is to invite disaster. It means a separation of Christ from the believer and Christ from the church. A church without the real presence cannot long endure. It will be helpless before its enemies. To disregard the presence of a friend at any gathering is to invite trouble. How much more so to disregard the presence of the Lord, the Lord of Glory? When Israel did so, God abandoned them to their enemies, and the Ark was taken by the Philistines, and the judgment not only brought disaster to Israel, but disaster to the Philistines who captured the Ark.

Asaph tells us in Psalm 78:56-64, of this event. “Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies: but turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow. For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images. When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel: so that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men; and delivered his strength (that is, his Ark) into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand. He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance. The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage. Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.”

We are told in scripture that judgment must begin at the house of God, and certainly it begins at the house of God scripture tells us abundantly, whenever the people of God deny the real presence, whenever they act as though only the power of the world is present in this world, only as though Caesar were on the throne, and not above and over all the petty Caesars of this world, the Lord of Glory, and his very real presence, with us, to lead us to victory if we do not blind ourselves to him.

Note that Asaph speaks of the Ark, not only as the glory, but as the strength, the strength of God. It is the mighty power of God manifest among his people and in Jesus Christ incarnate. To deny the real presence of our Lord with his church is to insist on powerlessness.

In a book I wrote some years ago, The Foundations of Social Order, I discussed the meaning of the iconoclastic controversy, and summarized the very important research of Gerhard Ladner. The struggle did have roots in Greek philosophy, and much of the iconodualism and iconoclasticism had its roots in Greek philosophy, but it also had a premise which is very important to us. The issue was the incarnation. Does the state, does Caesar manifest the visible power of whatever gods may be, or does Christ’s real presence govern history? This was the issue in the iconoclastic controversy.

Today, in the current war of the state against Christian schools and churches, we have a like battle. We have our little would-be Caesar in the White House trying to lay hands upon Christ’s kingdom. The state insists on its sovereignty or lordship, and the church either denying or having a weak doctrine of the real presence of the Lord is faltering in that battle. In the course of that battle, the church must remember that it takes more than a mere affirmation of the real presence to ensure victory. Faithfulness is required. Israel faced the Philistines and then sent for the Ark from the tabernacle, thinking the presence of the Ark would give them victory, but they were blind to the Lord, blind to his law, blind to his mercy, blind to his government, and when they brought out the Ark, it led them to disaster. Because of their sins, the presence of God left them and brought judgment upon Israel. The real presence thus, is a very important article of our faith. It tells us indeed that our God is with us, that he will never leave us nor forsake us, so that we may boldly say, “The Lord is my helper; I shall not fear what man may do unto me.”

Thus, it is very important for us to take seriously this doctrine in our personal life and in the life of the church. We cannot be cowardly believers, or complaining believers. We cannot always say, “How difficult is my lot,” as a person, or as a church. For if we know the real presence, we know that we have the glory of the Lord with us. So that we shall not fear what man may do unto us. This is the victory which overcometh the world, even our faith. Let us pray.

O Lord our God, we come to thee mindful that we, as a people, have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and we have forgotten thee and thy law, and we have despised thy presence. O Lord, our God, have mercy upon us. Recall us to thy side again. Make of us again a people who are possessed by thy presence, empowered by it, and made strong in battle, to the end that the kingdoms of this world might become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Give us a victory against the powers of our Caesars. Strike down those who would lay hands, lawless hands, upon thy realm. Bless those who, in Washington and in the state capitols, in the courts and out of the courts, in churches, and in Christian schools, hold aloft the banner of thy kingdom against the enemy, and bless them with thy presence and thy conquering power. In Jesus name. Amen.

Are there any questions now concerning our lesson? Yes?

[Audience] After last week, I was wondering, concerning communion, what difference should we consider taking communion makes to the believer?

[Rushdoony] The question is what difference should taking communion make to the believer? Apart from the fact of preparation for communion by self-examination of our obedience, of our oneness in Christ, of our being members of one another, the difference that communion should make in our lives is that it should give us a very strong recognition of the real presence of the Lord. I think one of the saddest facts of our time is the Christian feels alone, that he feels isolated in the world, as though outside the four walls of the church there is an alien, hostile world that is going its own way in terms of its own law, and the world belongs to Caesar, and that’s very wrong. It’s not only wrong, it’s evil, and so, if we take communion and still feel that we are alone in a hostile world, we have certainly gone very much astray.

Any other questions?

Well, if not, let us bow our heads in prayer.

Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing. Make us ever mindful that as we go our separate ways, day by day, we are not alone, that thou art every with us, thou wilt never leave us nor forsake us, and grant, O Lord, that we be faithful to thee so that thy presence means to us blessing and not judgment. Grace and mercy, and not chastening. We thank thee, our Father, for the glory of thy presence and of thy covenant. In Jesus name. Amen.

End of tape