Sacred Land

That according to the Constitution is the only land the Federal Government can own and the Federalist Papers twice, both Alexander Hamilton and Madison, spoke strongly in favor of this position. They argued that this was a good reason why the constitution should be adopted. Moreover when we read the constitution of the United States analysis and interpretation, annotation of cases decided by the Supreme Court of the United States to June 29, 1972 we read that the courts have recognized that this article does not cover lands acquired for forests, parks, ranges, wildlife sanctuaries or flood control but by its pure fiat the United States Supreme Court have justified the acquisition of state lands for all these reasons and more. Thus the constitutional limitation on the federal ownership of land combined with the first amendment for a long time gave the church a freedom which now is disappearing and is under attack. It is under attack because now the state sees itself as the successor to God. As a matter of fact a new book which is to be published this month and to be released the first of October is by Michael Harrington, a prominent socialist active in one administration after another in recent years, the book is about the death of God and the funeral of God, which means he says, we must bury every relic of biblical law and create a new humanistic law order.

He summons in fact the churches to recognize the reality of the funeral of God to help with the funeral and to create a new humanistic society. Sacred land however is very important in scripture. The biblical view of land has as a basic premise first that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Because he is the creator he is the lawmaker, the governor and therefore all the land is His. This leads to the second premise of course, the earth is the Lords and hence God’s right to judge the earth. The first time we are told that God because the earth is His claims the right to judge the earth is Exodus 9:29 when judgment is pronounced upon pharaoh and upon Egypt. God tells Job that whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine. Over and over again the scriptures assert God’s title to all the earth. Then third, certain areas are set aside for His purpose, His temple, His worship, and these are therefore to be regarded as holy unto the Lord. Even the priests and the Levites were regulated in their use of the temple or the sanctuary. When King Uzziah as 2 Chronicles 26:16 following tells us violated the holy place God struck him down with leprosy. Thus God asserts His ownership of all the land and His reservation to Himself of portions of that land as an embassy. Hence the use of the word by Paul that we are ambassadors of Christ, hence the claim to be a procria, an alien enclave with extraterritorial rights wherever they go as they set up churches and sanctuaries. Now the rescript of Artaxerxes which we read in these verses, verses twenty one through twenty seven, recognizes this fact.

We must say that it is possible that the Persian Empire had ulterior motives in that they wanted to build up a buffer state on their borders. We know also that of all the realms of the ancient world none was more enlightened in their view of religious freedom than Persia. There is much that one can say about the faults of the Persian Empire but perhaps no country of antiquity has been more abused than has Persia perhaps because of this element of a respect for all religions. In His rescript Artaxerxes goes beyond what was routine for Persia and thus it is clear that because of his knowledge of what Old Testament law required and conferences with Ezra who said he stood before the king and his counselors this is a most remarkable document because it conceives what biblical law requires. Now our concern with it is at that point where the sacred land is affected. First the sacred land of the temple is out of bounds. Artaxerxes rescript says that no civil authorities have any jurisdiction over them. The temple personnel even to the janitors are tax exempt. Out of this comes what for centuries was an important doctrine in the church, the benefit of the clergy. Now there is nothing but an indifference in the modern church to that concept. Then second as we have seen the doctrine of sacred land begins with the premise that all the earth is the Lords and thus all must be under God’s law. The sacred land requires a sanctuary and the law goes forth from that sanctuary.

Thus according to the rescript of Artaxerxes the civil order of Judea was to be under the law of God. This is a very remarkable point, in verses twenty five and twenty six in fact, it is said very plainly:

“And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God, that is in thine hand, set magistrates and judges, which may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye them that know them not.

26 And whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.”

Full internal freedom was given to Ezra to set up a theocracy; apparently only in foreign affairs was there any jurisdiction by the Persian Empire. The appointments of the magistrates, of the judges, all civil officials, was left to Ezra, to the temple. God’s ownership of the earth requires that His law govern all things in His realm and this the rescript recognizes. But there is still a third factor: just as sacred land requires that the land be under the law of God to which that land appertains, so too the same doctrine requires godly education. Teach ye them that know not. Education is a central aspect of government. If a government, a civil government, is humanistic the education will be also.

It is not a surprise therefore that the humanistic state controls education. The rise of modern humanistic statism and the state control of education have gone hand in hand. The same is true of law. As humanistic statism has developed we have seen also the steady replacement of biblical law with humanistic law. Modern man looks to the state for salvation, for cradle to grave security and as a result the state is his God. Men do not turn to prayer, to the Holy Spirit, to communion, to the word of God but to the state in their time of need and the modern state is man’s very sorry means of grace. Then fourth the death penalty is placed in the hands of Ezra to be enforced in terms of the law of thy God. The same is true of the law of the king, but authority in both cases is left to Ezra and the sanctuary. Thus what this rescript did was to say the sacred land in the midst of the land was to be the source of authority and government in all the land and also the source of education. Thus the sacred land is not a small corner in an otherwise secular society but a central point in the life of a covenanted community. Last week we spoke about covenanted communities. The New England townships were set up under a covenant, the church was placed in the center of the village and the township. It was the local of town meetings and town activities because out of the sacred land went law, education, communion, community and all things else. Thus the idea that modern churchmen have that the sacred land is just a small island in an ocean of secularism is ungodly and it is their adoption of this alien premise that is the beginning of a surrender of the world to the devil.

A central state is now the new God, it is the center increasingly of all government and education and also the local of immunity. Precisely now when every effort is being made to control the church, efforts being made to put the church under taxation, we have seen also the development of the immunity of federal properties from any kind of control. We are told that the federal lands are now forty two percent of the United States, almost half. They are the new sacred land, they cannot be taxed by the cities and the states, they are held to be separated, sacred although the language avoids the language that once applied to such lands. Sacred soil now has become statist. What will change this? Only as the people are changed, only as the people again bring all things under the captivity of Jesus Christ, only as they recognize His sovereignty and that the earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof, but for the present if you want to see sacred land look at federal property. There is where the new God resides. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God we live in the midst of a godless generation, an apostate people and men who surrender what belongs to Thee unto tyrants, humanists, workers of iniquity. Give us strength by Thy spirit and grace by Thy word to reclaim all things for Jesus Christ. To bring peoples, nations, institutions, the whole of the earth under Thy dominion, that Thy will might be done on earth as it is in heaven. Grant us this we beseech Thee, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Yes?

[Question] There is a very interesting ploy the federal government uses in terms of federal lands that I think everybody ought to know about. Everyone says well it’s no big deal that the federal government is holding these lands in trust for us. Well that’s not really quite true, what the federal government does is they don’t allow the sates to tax the land so they reimburse the states for lost taxes and thereby have a leverage over the states to dictate policy at the state government level and that’s precisely what’s happening here in California right now. The federal government says well we have a hundred and fifty to two hundred million dollars here in reimbursement for you. Now there is certain things we would like done at the state level, you know, in order for you to get this hundred and fifty to two hundred million dollars in reimbursement. Now that’s an oversimplification of it but that’s exactly what’s happening and the federal lands, the whole problem with locking up the federal lands is that everybody talks about protecting them for the future when in reality what they’re doing is locking up resources and making us dependent on foreign powers and reason why President Reagan can’t do anything with respect to McDonalds and the rest of the people is because eighteen of our thirty seven strategic minerals are imported, seventy five percent or more from Soviet Russia. Including [unknown], [unknown] without it you cannot make steel. Well I happen to know personally the geologist who sampled all the major [unknown] deposits in California, over a six year period, and he told me there’s enough [unknown] right here in the State of California to supply ten times the nations needs for the next five hundred years but they cannot be mined, they cannot be mined because those eight deposits were among the first twenty targets by the environmentalist groups.

[Rushdoony] And the most powerful man in California is not the governor, it is the chairman of the federal land commission controlling the federal lands here and they are not held in terms of conservation, they are very extensively used…[pause]…they are very extensively used for grazing and when you find out the name of the people who have grazed in the past generation you know why the media is controlled. Yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] That was a part of the Persian order, yes. But Ezra had the option to exercise it or not and there’s no evidence that they set up prisons. Yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] For a what?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] No well there were pilgrimages to Jerusalem three times a year in the Old Testament so there’s nothing inherently wrong about the idea if it is properly done and we have retreats in that sort of thing in the modern world.

[Question Unintelligible] [Laughter]

[Rushdoony] Any other questions or comments, yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes…yes, and it’s one that happens again and again in a variety of ways, we are robbed and then taxed. Yes, John?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes. Well if there are no further comments let us bow our heads in prayer.

OH lord our God the ungodly rage and take counsel against Thee, against Thy anointed and Thy kingdom but Thou who sittest in the circle of the heavens dost laugh and holds them in derision, and in thy own time Thou wilt smite them with a rod of iron. We wait on thee oh God and as we wait we move in terms of Thy word, seeking to obey Thee in all things that Thy will might be done in us and through us. Strengthen us by Thy spirit, give us patience under adversity and victory over the powers of darkness. In Jesus’ name, Amen.