Systematic Theology - Church

The Passover

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Lesson: Government

Genre: Speech

Track: 06

Dictation Name: 06 The Passover

Year: 1960’s – 1970’s

{?} he that is in the world. Give us strength, courage, faith, and hope, that as we face these problems and these battles, we may, in Christ’s name, power, and Spirit, be more than conquerors. We thank thee for the faith of men like Pastor Siliman{?} In Nebraska, and all who, like him, from one end of the country to the other, stand firmly in terms of the freedom of thy word and of thy church. Deliver them, we beseech thee, and give us a mighty victory against the powers of unbelief and of darkness. In Jesus name. Amen.

Our scripture this morning is 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, and our subject is The Passover. “Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

We have been discussing the doctrine of the church, and by now, it should be apparent that our approach is not modern nor institutional. We are not beginning with the three polities; Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Congregational. We are not beginning with the institution of the church. Before the church existed, there was God’s redemptive work and his covenant, which created the church. We must look at those things which, in particular, created the church and laid down the forms for covenant life before we can look at the institutional form. We have, of course, looked at government. The biblical premises of government in the church and out of the church, but we are looking there at something which precedes the institution, but must determine the institution.

One more comment, by the way, on government. We have an interesting word: dean. The word dean comes from the Latin, and it referred originally to a man who commanded ten divisions. The church took it over, and it came to apply to an elder over ten men. Then, in the Middle Ages, it came to mean a man, who in a monastery was over ten monks. In a cathedral, it applied to any cleric who had ten pastors under his jurisdiction, and of course, the university took it over, and it was a professor who had ten professors under him. So, the very word “dean” tells us that the biblical pattern of government, by elders and by tens, has deep roots in Western life. It is ironic that something so basic has never been studied by any scholars, no work done in it at all.

But now, to turn to our subject for this morning, the Passover. The Passover, as it developed, took a week, began with the Sabbath, ended with the Sabbath. Strictly speaking, the first day was the Passover day and the other seven were the days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Passover began with a meal, at which Exodus 13:8 and many other verses tell us, children were instructed. It was the responsibility of the child to ask the question, “What is the meaning of this service?” and as we saw, the early church gave centrality to the child in the Communion service. Today, we have, unhappily, too many people who feel children should be abolished from church meetings. This is a sad fact. It is a commentary on our modern world. The Bible says, not only is the child to be present in family and organized worship, in the Christian synagogue, in the Jewish synagogue before it, but in the key services he is to ask, “What is the meaning of this that we do?” the question concerning the Passover, and also to raise the question, “What is the meaning of God’s law? Why was this law given?” and instruction is to be directed to the child as well as to the adult, because they are members of the covenant. They are the future of the covenant, the future of the church, the future of the state, of the family, of every area of life, and so the child has a central place in the life of the church.

Now, another basic aspect of the Passover festival, again pointed to the child. They were to search out the leaven in the house, and to eliminate the leaven before the Passover. So that the night before the Passover, the father was to take the children and go through the house with a lamp or a candle to search out the leaven. Now, of course, it was an obvious fact where the leaven, or yeast, would be kept. The housewife would have it in a particular place, but there was a symbolism there, a teaching method. So that the child was to know that all the corners of the house must have light shed upon them, and we must cleanse every portion of our life, of that which is corruptible. We have an opinion, in dispensational quarters, that leaven represents sin. It does not. It represents corruptibility. After all, some sacrifices, thank offerings, and peace offerings, according to Leviticus 7:13, for example, must be given to the Lord. The believer brings the leavened offering. What does this mean? What we give to the Lord is corruptible. It passes away. The buildings we erect, the works that we do, in time, they’re gone, but God requires them. We live in a world of time. We live, as it were, in a leavened world, and therefore, our leavened offerings have a very important and a place required by God in that world, but when it comes to atonement, man contributes nothing. It is God’s work in its entirety, and so, when the great festival of atonement comes, we are to put aside all that we do, and to put our entire trust in the Lord.

Toplady, in his great hymn, “Rock of Ages,” makes this same stress.

“Nothing in my hands I bring,

Simply to thy cross I cling.”

Now, it is interesting and important that the scripture, for example Exodus 34:25, speaks of the festival of the Passover. Almost all the holy days in scripture are called festivals. The Sabbath is a festival, and we forget this fact too often. The word that is translated in our King James as festival, in the Hebrew, means a feast. It means also a dance. It means joy, and it means solemnity. How do you get that {?}. Our world “solemnity” has gained a sour connotation, but solemnity and joy in the Bible, a holy and important occasion, a solemn occasion is also a joyful occasion, because it is a festival of the Lord.

Now, Paul, in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 has reference precisely to this Passover preparation, and he says, “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump.” He is referring there to the custom, which all of them had grown up with, and which there is a little evidence it was continued in the early church before the Christian Passover, of searching out the leaven, to teach the children that we must cast out all things that pertain to our human pride, our human effort when we come to the atonement. It is Christ’s work and his alone that effects our salvation.

Thus, even in the great and holy festivals, of the Old Testament church and the New Testament church, children were basic. Instruction was geared to them, and to parents that they might instruct their children and their children’s children, and that they might be renewed in their faith and in their understanding of these things.

The New Testament, of course, is emphatic that Jesus Christ is the Passover lamb. Such verses as John 1:29 and John 19:36, 1 Corinthians 5:7, 1 Peter 1:19, and Revelation 5:6 tell us that Christ is the Passover lamb, that it is his blood that is the blood of redemption, the Passover blood. Now, it is important for us to note that even the Jewish encyclopedia recognizes the fact that the New Testament is emphatic on the relationship of Christ to the Passover, that he is the Passover lamb, by whose blood redemption is effected. It’s sad that when the Jewish encyclopedia recognizes that fact, too many Christians work to obscure it. The Passover celebrates the deliverance of the covenant people from Egypt, from slavery, from captivity. It represents their salvation from sin and death. It was an act of grace. Israel had been faithless in Egypt, and centuries later, Ezekiel reminds them in Ezekiel 20:6 that they had gone astray in Egypt and served the Gods of the Egyptians, but God had redeemed them in his grace and mercy. When we look at the Passover, therefore, we are looking at the great festival of redemption, of joy, when we celebrate our deliverance from sin and death.

Now, there is another festival in the Bible which is closely tied to the Passover. It is the Jubilee. The Jubilee begins with the proclamation which we have on the Liberty Bell. “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land and unto all the inhabitants thereof.” Passover celebrates salvation. The culmination of salvation is in world liberty, the deliverance of all the captives, the abolition of sin and death, the abolition of bondage, of slavery, of all problems. It means liberty. The biblical word for liberty is the same word as the word for swallow, the bird, a free-flying bird that is a free bird, and so the Jubilee means that we soar, we are free from all the impediments that sin and death have brought upon us.

The church thus, was created by God in terms of the Passover and the Jubilee. This is the focus. Christ is our Passover. Death passes over us and our sins are forgiven. As a result, because of the Passover, because Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us, we are summoned to go forth to possess the promised land, to dispossess the ungodly. This was the summons to the Old Testament church, and the Christian Passover is followed by the Great Commission, “Go ye therefore unto all nations, into all the world, and make disciples of all nations, teaching them all things that I have commanded you.” And the conclusion of this is the great Jubilee. “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever,” as Revelation 11:15 tells us.

Ezekiel gives us a vision in Ezekiel 47:1-12, of water coming out from under the altar, a stream of water, of living water, signifying that from the altar, from the sacrifice of Christ for our redemption, a stream is unleashed across the face of the earth, which, as it goes forth, grows wider, broader, deeper, until it covers all things. This is repeated, this vision, in Revelation 22:1-5. The river of life, at whose borders all things flourish. The work of salvation being done, Revelation tells us, all is Jubilee. The curse is forever gone, and his servants now serve him in perfect joy and in happiness. All is Jubilee.

I began by saying that our approach is not institutional as we come to the doctrine of the church. The church is an institution, there can be no question about that. It must be an institution, but if it is only an institution, it is not a church. It is, first of all, a response to God’s creative act, created by Christ our Passover, and by the Passover that preceded Christ’s Passover, created by God’s covenant, created by an act of redemption, and its culmination is to be the Jubilee. The church is an institution, but if it is only an institution, it is not a church. It is the Passover house, the Passover house. It serves the Lord to fulfill his purpose, which culminates in the Jubilee, and Christ’s works, “Where two or three are gathered together in his name,“ in every church great and small, to extend the Passover to all the world, to bring all men and nations under his redemptive blood, so that they may be delivered from the power of darkness. So that this world, which God created in the beginning and surveying, pronounced, “Very good,” may again meet God’s requirement, may fulfill his purpose and be his kingdom. Thus, the church is an institution, but it is an institution with a mission to all the world, and to every institution in the world, and to every person in the world in every of life and thought, to declare the word of the Lord, and to say, “Thus saith the Lord,” to enable men to be priests, prophets, and kings. As priests, to dedicate all things to Christ our Lord. As prophets to speak the word of God to every area of life, and as kings, to rule all things in terms of the word of God. This is the calling of the church. Let us pray.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who of thy grace and mercy has called us to be thy people, thy kingdom, and thy church, we thank thee for Christ, our Passover lamb, for the blood shed for our redemption, for the glorious promise of the Jubilee, and the assurance that our labor is not in vain in the Lord, that all things done for him will accomplish his purpose. Make us every joyful in thy calling. Make of our Sabbaths a festival unto thee, a time of joy and thanksgiving, and grant that day by day, we may bring to thee our leavened offerings, of thanks, and of joy in thy peace, serving thee with all our heart, mind, and being. Bless us to this purpose, we beseech thee, in Jesus name. Amen. Yes?

[Audience] From what you {?} the end, then this means that we, as Christians, have a right and a duty to attempt to take back this country and reconstruct it as a Christian republic.

[Rushdoony] We have a duty to recapture this country for Christ and the whole world, yes. It is a mandate. That is the meaning of the Jubilee. It is interesting that in the Jubilee, and in other sacrifices, that there were to be seventy sacrifices, symbolizing the seventy elders who were the leading elders, and symbolizing the totality of the nations of the world, and this was recognized from Old Testament times, so that all people were to be brought in under the Passover and into the Jubilee, and Revelation, which gives us a glimpse of that battle and the Jubilee, says that people out of every tongue, tribe, and nation are to be brought in.

Any other questions? Yes?

[Audience] I wanted to thank you for what you said last week. You {?} training taking {?} for their responsibility in the future of leaders, and I wondered whether you could share, {?} I was trying to explain what you said afterwards concerning teaching boys the right attitude towards girls when they’re small, because that’s been helpful in our family this week, to get the right balance.

[Rushdoony] Yes, that is an important fact and it’s been lost in the last thirty or forty years, but it used to be that boys were very strictly disciplined to be protectors. That was a part of their headship, and they had a responsibility to protect their sisters from any kind of mistreatment, or abuse, or disrespect from any other boy, and a man was to have that same responsibility. I’ve often mentioned in the past the fact that scripture does speak of the covering that a woman is to have and how, on the frontier, respectable women, good women, wore a hat. They wore a bonnet, very commonly, on the Western frontier, and this meant something, that they were under the protection of a godly man, and every good man who saw them in any situation was expected to aid them. Now, even in Antiquity, in the Roman Empire, this kind of thing prevailed, because Paul says this is known, this kind of standard, among the pagans. A prostitute was forbidden to have her head covered, because it was claiming a protection she had forsaken. So, the necessity is that, as Christians, we train our boys, very early, to realize they have a duty to protect their sisters, a responsibility, and that God requires this of them.

Any other questions or comments? Well, if not, let us bow our heads for the benediction.

Dismiss us now, our Father, with thy blessing. Give us joy always in thy service. Bless us as we deal with our children and our children’s children, and make us triumphant in Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen.

End of tape