Systematic Theology – The State

Imperial Prerogatives of Jesus Christ

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Lesson: Government

Genre: Speech

Track: 16

Dictation Name: 16 Imperial Prerogatives of Jesus Christ

Year: 1970’s

Our subject in this final session is the Imperial Prerogatives of Jesus Christ. The New Testament is very emphatic on this. We’ve already looked at Philippians 2:9-11, with its declaration that Christ as the Lord, the world King and Emperor, shall have every knee bowing to him, and every tongue confessing him. In fact, we are told by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:24-26 that, before the end of the world, all things shall be under Christ’s dominion, and all men as well, and then at the end, the last enemy, death, is destroyed. Paul says, “Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”

Now, this is only natural because the New Testament declares that Jesus Christ is, before things, all things, and by him all things consist as Paul says in Colossians 1:17. If he is the one who made all things, and all things must serve him, and he will bring all things in submission to himself before the end of the world, then certainly, he is most obviously the King of kings. He is the word made flesh, God incarnate. “All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made,” John tells us in the first chapter of the Gospel, third verse. Jesus himself say, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending which is and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” In other words, when he says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” that is, the “A” to the “Z” of all things, I am he by whom all things consist. Now, there are no words without letters. Every word in the dictionary is made up of letters in the alphabet, and Jesus Christ says, all things in this creation were made by me, and they consist because I am he who holds them together. They cannot exist. They have no being if I do not give it to them, and this is why he is the Almighty.

We are also told in Revelation 11:15, “The Kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” And Revelation 19:16 gives us that very familiar declaration that Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of Lords. He is the world emperor.

There was a time when the church stressed this very highly. If you go to some of the oldest churches in Europe, or the Middle East, you’ll very commonly see a picture of Christ holding a globe. The whole world is in his hand. He is the Lord.

Thus, for the state to control Christ and his kingdom is the epitome of nonsense as well as evil. We should remember that there is still another term besides King of kings and Lord of lords that is applied to our Lord in the New Testament. James 2:1 speaks of him as “the Lord of Glory.” This is one of the most important words, or terms, ever applied to our Lord. It is central to the ancient imperial kingships in the Orient, and very important to any doctrine of God. In the Oriental doctrine of kingship as we saw it especially in ancient Persia, the king was the face of God on earth. He was the personal representative of God. He was the threshold and the mediator of God. He was the possessor of the divine glory, the spark of life, the creative power. The essence of all things was his, the glory.

In fact, to this day, royalty still maintains some elements of that pagan form, and the royal courts we have today of the Oriental kings as of the kings of Persia, and of Parthia and other great empires of Antiquity in the church, the church is modeled after a royal court in its basic structure, and in fact, the first churches that were built in the days of Rome were built of stone and resembled a royal court, because it was the house, the throne room of the King of kings, Jesus Christ, and this is why even though the early church was a persecuted church, the first time it was able to build a church after a couple of centuries, it gave a special attention to making the church, no matter how small, a royal court, a very impressive place.

The modern idea is that the church should be very modest and humble in appearance, but the biblical idea and the early church’s idea was that it must be for glory and for beauty, that it has to show forth that Jesus Christ is king. In fact, everything in the church as we have it today can be traced to something in the royal court, of emperors. The kings of that time all dreamed of claiming the glory. Only the greatest of kings dared claim it, and even there, it was a façade. In Acts 12:21-24, we have an example of King Herod claiming the royal glory, and we read, “And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost. But the word of God grew and multiplied.” On that occasion, King Herod, who was preparing to claim the glory and to be a king of god incarnate, had a special garment, as I recall it from Josephus, it was made of silver, silver thread, so that it would, in the sunlight, glisten and reflect the light and dazzle all the spectators, who then cried out, “It is the voice of a god, and not of a man,” and we are told that immediately, God smote him, “because he gave not God the glory.” This incident is abundantly confirmed by historical evidence.

Now, the pagan kings of glory, those who claimed to be kings, took men into their household, and called them friends, and anyone that a king called a friend was no longer a commoner. Now a days, if you’re a duke or an earl in England, you’ve inherited the title. That’s a modern thing. It used to be that nobody inherited a title. He only got the title from the king by an act of grace on the part of the king. Now, it’s very interesting that when a prince uses the word “friend,” it means prince. When a king or emperor uses the word “friend” to anyone, it means a prince. So that when our Lord declares in John 15:16, “Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you,” he uses the word “philos,” which means friend, as in Philadelphia. Philadelphia, brotherly love, the city of brotherly love.

Now, we have that same word used in the Greek text of the Old Testament in Esther 1:16 when it speaks of the princes of Persia, because anyone who is a friend of a king is automatically a prince. Thus, in Antiquity, when a king said, “You are my friend,” he made you a prince. Everyone else had to call you a prince. Only when he said it, it did not mean friend, but someone above me, a prince.

So, our Lord declares that we are his friends if we do whatsoever he commands us. Second, en emperor in ancient times clothed the members of his family. In Matthew 22:1-14, we have the parable of the wedding feast, where Jesus says the king requires all who come to the wedding feast to wear the garment he provides because only when we are members of Christ, of his family, princes by the adoption of grace, are we acceptable in the house. So that a great emperor made his friends princes, and he clothed them.

Then next, he fed them. The Lord’s Table is the evidence of this. The King says, “I care for my children, my family. Just as we provide for our children, God the King, Christ the Lord, Christ the Emperor, the Lord of Glory says, “I care for my own better than you care for your children, if you will but commit yourself unto me and trust in me.”

All who are members of the royal household put on royal righteousness, as against servile righteousness. What is the difference? Service righteousness is when we do something because we’ve got to do it or we’re going to get clobbered. Royal righteousness is when we do something because it’s our law also, because we belong to the king, and when he says the word, it is our word, so that every word that God spoke in the scriptures to Moses, and to Paul, and to all the prophets, is not only the word of God to us, but it is our word because we are members of his family. We bear his name, and therefore, we say, “This is our word also, our way of life, our royal righteousness,” and Christ on the cross defeats the powers of sin as the Lord of Glory, and the world can now be reconquered, and the church was established because the Lord of Glory triumphed.

Pentecost was an evidence of the fact that Jesus Christ is the Lord of Glory, because we read, according to Acts 2:1-4, “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Now, one of the things that marked every emperor who claimed to be the lord of glory was that in every procession, someone went before him with a lighted torch, even though it was broad daylight, because the fire, the spark of life he claimed was his, but it was absurd. Alexander the Great who claimed to be the giver of life and the lord of glory died like any other man, like every son of Adam from the beginning of time. When, at the day of Pentecost our Lord sends tongues of fire to sit upon the head of every man to indicate, “I who am the Lord of Glory give glory to each of my children,” and it was not one tongue over the church as a whole, but one on the head of every man. So that the Lord of Glory said, “I bless, I am mindful of, and I care not only for the church as a whole, but every particular person therein.” This was most remarkable thing.

One scholars, Buckler, said some few years ago, “The Holy Spirit is the divine royal glory of the kingdom of God, established on earth by our Lord. The doctrines of its divinity and place in the Trinity as of the same being with the Father and the Son from whom it precedes, is the churches assignment to its source of the glory which is hers through her Lord. From the procession of the glory precedes the royal righteousness. It is this fact which is symbolized in the sacrament of confirmation which is, in reality, the chiefest of all sacraments. For it is the epiphany of each son of man.” Now, while I don’t agree with everything that Buckler there implies, the point he makes as a great Oriental scholar is thoroughly valid. Namely, that this fact of Pentecost sets forth the fact that Jesus Christ is the Lord of Glory, and he gives glory to his people and the care of his kingdom. Every believer is a temple of glory, the Holy Spirit, and it is interesting that the modern state still claims, like the old pagan empires and like Rome, to be bearers of the glory. In fact, one of the names for the flag is Old Glory. Now, the United States has less usage of that kind of language than almost any other country in the world, but it’s still commonplace, the claims of the state, as though they were bearers of the glory, rather than Christ.

In the Old Testament, the Holy of Holies was the throne room where the glory of God resided, and one of the great Psalms of scripture has to do with the glory of God. Psalm 24, which reads, “The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.”

This is a particularly moving Psalm. It gives us the grounds of admission into the royal presence. It tells us that the house of God is the house of his glory. How then can any nation dare lay hands on the church and on the possessions of Jesus Christ? If they do, they invoke the wrath of the King of kings, of the Lord of Glory, and this is why we must believe that God’s judgment will be upon the world of our time, and already is falling upon our time, because men have laid hands upon Christ’s church, lawless hands. They have claimed the glory when it is not theirs, and they have infringed upon the imperial prerogatives of Jesus Christ.

You know, today is ironic, because the gold market today revealed two days of dramatic rise, total of $52 an ounce, and the word I had from one broker was paper currencies are going up in smoke. Interesting that not too many years ago they were insisting that their papers were as good as gold, and today, their paper currencies are collapsing, and they are trying to prevent people from drawing their money out of banks. They are finished. God’s judgment is falling upon them, because they have laid ungodly hands upon Christ’s kingdom, Christ’s church, and Christ’s people. Our Lord is moving to deliver his saints, and we shall see their triumph and their freedom.

Are there any questions now? Yes?

[Audience] As you quoted from 1 Corinthians 15 regarding Christ’s rule, and that all the enemies will be put under his feet. The last part of that is, “The last enemy is death.”

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Audience] Can you just explain in what sentence is that death the last enemy?

[Rushdoony] Yes. Now, with the fall of man, two great evils were unleashed: sin and death. With Christ’s coming and the creation of his kingdom, a redeemed people, we were sent forth to bring all men, women, children, and nations into the kingdom of God, to make them a new creation, to make them instruments of righteousness. So, wherever we see that taking place, we see sin destroyed, and we are told that step by step, this shall be done and the righteousness of the Lord will cover the earth. So, as we see over the centuries before the end, God’s righteousness through his people, redeeming and reclaiming all nations, then it will leave finally, only the other enemy, death, and that, with his coming, he will destroy. Yes?

[Audience] With relation to the post-millennial view, how would you account for the condition of the world in its present state and do you think that the {?} chastise the world and then possibly bring in a millennium after this, before the Second Coming?

[Rushdoony] Yes. Very definitely the Lord is going to triumph and we’re going to see a glorious reign of his saints from pole to pole before his Second Coming, and God is judging the nations right now. Men’s hearts are failing them for fear, and we haven’t seen the worst yet. So that all over the world today, we see a great deal of fear and uncertainty as the judgments of God are coming home, as they are falling upon all peoples. Thus, we need to rejoice because we know that out of this will come our triumph. The enemy is being destroyed. [25:48

Now, before the meeting, we were just briefly discussing Christian education. The fact is that we’re seeing the judgment of God there. Who is destroying the state schools? It’s not us. They are destroying themselves. Our Lord says in Proverbs 8:36, “He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul; all they that hate me love death.” All the public schools are filled with a death wish. They’re committing suicide. They’re going downhill every year. Every year you read about how they’re turning the tide, and they’re making improvements, and you read some very dramatic stories, but what was in 1970 the first year university level reading is now, well, as of 1980, two years ago, was no longer on the same level. It was equivalent to the 1970 ninth grade high school reading. In other words, in ten years, the educational level had dropped four years. So, this is what’s happening. They are a judgment to themselves. So, when we look around the world, we have to say, “They’re finished. They are committing suicide. They are destroying themselves,” and we are seeing the Christian community rise up in power.

Just in the last month or two, three or four new books were written, attacking savagely, slanderously, and viciously the Christian community. Why? Because they are so afraid of us. They see us as taking over. Yes?

[Audience] I bought two interesting books on {?} talked about {?} in {?} Charles Cochrane’s book, Christianity and Classical Culture. You know, the Caesars and the Romans at times, they put their hearts in a certain faith, and we can look back now today and say, “Gee, that’s going to fail, that’s so obvious.” Well, you see, today I think one of the problems is we don’t understand what modern man is putting his faith in, and if we, if Christians could see what they’re putting their faith in, you can see why it’s going to fall apart, and why the Christians are going to take over, and another very important book was Out of Revolution, by a guy named Rosenstock-Huessy and he explains what Western man is thinking, and why. I mean they’re putting their faith in something that’s just going to fall apart.

[Rushdoony] You can’t drink or eat arsenic without dying. You cannot partake of humanism as a culture without dying, and we’re seeing the death of those things now. Any other questions or comments? Yes?

[Audience] I’m a little bit confused, what you mean when you talk about the Christians and church {?} I think in your second talk you made the statement, I think, that the state cannot touch the Christians churchmen, but if the Christians {?} bring every area of life and thought under Christ, how do we define a dividing line between being a churchmen and not?

[Rushdoony] Yes, every area of life is to be under Christ, but it’s one thing to say that we have to fight when they try to control the church. Another thing when they raise our taxes. Now, we can say that’s immoral and unjustifiable, and the state is going to abuse it, but there we’re defending something which is essentially personal, whereas, when we’re defending the freedom of the church from control, that’s essentially what belongs to Christ. So, we cannot equate a tax revolt with a church and state situation. There are too many people today who are ready to go to jail in terms of the tax revolt, and while I have sympathies for them up to a degree, because I believe our tax system is evil, that’s not what we’re called to fight about, our own income. The tithe, yes. That’s a different matter. If the church were forbidden by the state to get any money from its members, or to take a tithe, then we could fight.

Incidentally, most the countries of Europe now do not give you a tax deduction for your tithing. In fact, they tax you if you give to the church. We hope to have an article on that soon by someone.

Any other questions or comments? Well, if not, let us bow our heads now in prayer as we adjourn.

Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing. Give unto all traveling mercies on their way home, a blessed night’s rest and joy in thy service day by day. In Jesus name. Amen.

End of tape