Systematic Theology – Covenant

Oath and Covenant

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Lesson: 10-22

Genre: Speech

Track: 10 of 22

Dictation Name: 10 Oath and Covenant

Location/Venue:

Year:

In this session our subject is Oath and Covenant. Again we come to a subject which to modern man is relatively meaningless. If you talk about oaths to modern man it means either profanity or an oath of office but oaths were once basic to society. No covenant could be made without curses. Every time a covenant was made you invoked curses upon yourself for disobedience. If two men made a covenant together they would say may such and such a thing happen to me if I am faithless to this covenant. And when man made a covenant with God either God pronounced it and they said amen to it or they themselves were required to say it, as for example, in Deuteronomy 27:15:

“15 Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen.

16 Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.

17 Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour's landmark. And all the people shall say, Amen.

18 Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way. And all the people shall say, Amen.

19 Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow. And all the people shall say, Amen.

20 Cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife; because he uncovereth his father's skirt. And all the people shall say, Amen.”

And so on throughout the balance of that chapter. The people had to stand on one mountain and on another and repeat these curses and say Amen to them. The covenant itself was the blessing. When you entered into a cov3nant and you said I shall be faithful to the God of the Covenant then you brought upon yourself blessings for faithfulness. Then you invoke the curses God pronounced upon yourself if you were faithless. All law in antiquity was covenant law, either a covenant with their gods or with their rulers and all the penalties in each culture were attested to by oaths.

An oath is a self-invoked covenant curse. You enter into a covenant with full knowledge that there are blessings in that covenant but if you are faithless to it you bring curses upon yourself. Now, an oath always assumes blood because an oath says if we are disobedient our blood be upon our heads. We deserve to die. So whenever a covenant is broken there is blood shed because the covenant breaker must die. Now man was a covenant breaker with God and Jesus Christ, God incarnate but also very man of very man came to die for us the covenant death, to be made a curse for us, to take upon himself the curse of the covenant law. Very often in antiquity when a covenant was made to emphasize that fact blood was shed. In some parts of the world such as in India a cock was killed and the blood was shed on the ground to indicate so shall it be with me if I am faithless in my covenant with you. In Arabia until fairly recently when two men made a covenant they would have to wash their hands in camel’s blood to indicate that their blood was to be shed if they were faithless and of course you remember God’s covenant with Abraham, the animals were cut asunder and spread on either side and Abraham had to walk in between those animals that had been cut asunder, their blood carcasses to realize so must both parties to the covenant, God and man be slain and their blood shed if they are faithless to the covenant. Now, there was another aspect to the covenant oath. When you made an oath and this was true in ancient Israel and in many other parts of the world you raised your right hand and you swore to be faithful to the man or with the Israelites, the God of Israel.

Then the blood of the covenant being shed you invoking curses upon yourself with an oath you sat down to eat. The covenant communion. So that eating is associated with the covenant oath and with the covenant curses. We have a reference to this fact in the communion service but most people are unaware of it because when Paul speaks in 1st Corinthians 11:28-30 he says:

“But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.

29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.”

Oaths are very serious in scripture, for some crimes according to Exodus 22:10 following a man could clear himself of a crime simply by raising his right hand and taking an oath and saying I swear by almighty God I did not do such and such a thing. Because anyone who was in fear of God would be afraid to take a false oath so a man could clear himself of certain crimes simply by taking an oath and that fact actually persisted and that application of biblical law into our own history here in this country. Now our Lord condemns the casual use of oaths in the Sermon on the Mount but it is the purely personal uses for private matters and your business affairs, not covenantal matters. The reformation took a very serious view about oaths, as a matter of fact if you go to the various confessions at the time of the reformation you will find that a very heavy emphasis is given to this matter, sometimes a longer chapter or a section then you find on other subjects, for example, in the thirty nine articles of the Episcopal Church, the final articles is a very strong statement on oaths and in the Westminster Confession of Faith a very long and really a very fine chapter on oaths which I’m going to read because I think it sums up the view of the Reformation very well.

“I. A lawful oath is a part of religious worship.”

That’s an excellent starting sentence to the Westminster confession statement.

“I. A lawful oath is a part of religious worship wherein upon just occasion, the person swearing solemnly calleth God to witness what he asserteth or promiseth; and to judge him according to the truth or falsehood of what he sweareth.

II. The name of God only is that by which men ought to swear, and therein it is to be used with all holy fear and reverence; therefore to swear vainly or rashly by that glorious and dreadful name, or to swear at all by any other thing, is sinful, and to be abhorred. Yet, as, in matters of weight and moment, an oath is warranted by the Word of God, under the New Testament, as well as under the Old, so a lawful oath, being imposed by lawful authority, in such matters ought to be taken.

III. Whosoever taketh an oath ought duly to consider the weightiness of so solemn an act, and therein to avouch nothing but what he is fully persuaded is the truth. Neither may any man bind himself by oath to any thing but what is good and just, and what he believeth so to be, and what he is able and resolved to perform. Yet it is a sin to refuse an oath touching any thing that is good and just, being imposed by lawful authority.

IV. An oath is to be taken in the plain and common sense of the words, without equivocation or mental reservation. It can not oblige to sin; but in any thing not sinful, being taken, it binds to performance, although to a man's own hurt: nor is it to be violated, although made to heretics or infidels.

V. A vow is of the like nature with a promissory oath, and ought to be made with the like religious care, and to be performed with the like faithfulness.

VI. It is not to be made to any creature, but to God alone: and that it may be accepted, it is to be made voluntarily, out of faith and conscience of duty, in way of thankfulness for mercy received, or for obtaining of what we want; whereby we more strictly bind ourselves to necessary duties, or to other things, so far and so long as they may fitly conduce thereunto.

VII. No man may vow to do any thing forbidden in the Word of God, or what would hinder any duty therein commanded, or which is not in his own power, and for the performance of which he hath no promise or ability from God. In which respects, monastical vows of perpetual single life, professed poverty, and regular obedience, are so far from being degrees of higher perfection, that they are superstitious and sinful snares, in which no Christian may entangle himself.”

Now I read that at some length because you see very obviously our forefathers felt that oaths were important, we’re going to come in a little while as to why they so rightly regarded them as important. But let’s go ahead to another subject now, the oath of office. A great many people say there is nothing particularly Christian about the constitution, this shows how little they know because the constitution placed the United States in covenant with God because it required an oath of office. Now, in those days an oath of office meant only one thing to those people, an oath to bind yourself to obey every word of God’s book and to invoke upon yourself every curse in this book if you were faithless. This is why as I have mentioned to some of you before when the oath of office was taken for generations by the president or any other official of the United States it was on an open bible, open to Deuteronomy 28 and Deuteronomy 28 spells out the blessings and the curses of the covenant so that it tells us these blessings shall come upon us and overtake us and these curses shall come upon us and overtake us if we are faithless to God’s covenant word and law. Now, this is a serious matter. The oath of office is still taken on the bible and everyone working for the government I believe even in the postal service must take an oath of office. This is a very frightening fact. It means that we as a country are invoking God’s judgment upon ourselves because we are using His covenant word, His covenant oath without any thought of being faithful to the covenant.

There is another aspect to the oath. Every man taking an oath is responsible for the obedience of all those who are under him. When a president takes an oath of office he is responsible for seeing to it that the United States as a nation follows God and His word and he is responsible if any under him seek to subvert that word. This is why when Moses set out for Egypt God met him on the way we are told to kill him, why? Because he had not brought his wife into line and allowed her to prevent the circumcision of his son and so Moses could not proceed in safety until his son was circumcised because how could he go and serve the covenant God if he did not follow the covenant requirement with his own family? Godly authority cannot be annulled by an oath. This is why according to Numbers 30:1-16 a wife or a daughter cannot take an oath without the approval of the father or the husband. Because they cannot take an oath that will anyway lessen the authority that they are under. God applies this also through our Lord Jesus Christ to men who say I will not support my father and mother because I promised that money to the Lord. Our Lord condemns all such oaths. We have in Genesis a couple of examples of oaths that are very commonly misunderstood and even by evangelical and reformed scholars treated as a relic of fertility cultism when Abraham and Jacob had oaths taken by others placing their hand under Abrahams or Jacob’s thigh. The reason for that was it had nothing to do with sex but it was an oath by the circumcision, they had undergone, the covenant son and this was recognized as important.

The bible tells us in Exodus 20:7 and the Ten Commandments that God will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain, that swears to a false oath. And God punishes all who take oaths falsely. There are examples of this of course, First Samuel 14:36 following, Second Samuel 21:1-2, First Kings 16:44 and many more. The classic example of course is Saul. Now when we turn to Hebrews 6:16-20 we have a very, very important fact there about oaths which tells us why oaths are important. Hebrews 6:16-20.

“ For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.”

That’s important. An oath settles the matter or did in antiquity because an oath was so serious men were afraid to take a false oath.

“17 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:

18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:

19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;

20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.”

In other words when man put himself under an oath God who cannot lie said I too will take an oath. I will be faithful to thee until death. Now, if God was willing to place Himself under oath for man whom he created and said I am ready to be faithful to my covenant to you even unto death and Calvary is the evidence that God through God the Son kept His oath. It’s obvious that God does not view oaths casually. How could God view oaths lightly when it cost Jesus Christ crucifixion, the most painful form of dying or execution known to man? Now, for a man to treat the covenant and the covenant oath lightly is therefore certainly to incur the wrath of God and God can say to us I did not take my vow made to you my covenant people through Moses and through Jesus Christ I did not take that vow lightly, how can you take it lightly without provoking my very great wrath? Life is a series of covenant oaths and vows. Baptism, the original service of baptism was very openly a vow. When you were baptized you made a vow to almighty God to be faithful unto Him to death or if it is a baptism of a child the parents make a vow that they shall rear that child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Communion involves an oath because the words of institution invoke damnation for partaking unworthily. Marriage involves vows which put us under oath. When a couple goes forward to be married the first vow they take they answer to the pastor who asks them the questions in the name of the Lord so that they are bowing to God in the person of the pastor, the second vows in which they repeat phrase by phrase I, John, take thee Mary, that is to one another.

Marriage is a vow. Church offices involve vows because people place themselves under a vow, an oath when they take that office. Civil offices, all of them require an oath of office. You see, the whole of our life is surrounded with God’s covenant and with oaths and vows in terms of that covenant and we are required to be faithful. The sad fact is that today the oath means next to nothing and people are very casual about the meaning of oaths, of vows. I recall after one ordination service back in the thirties from a man who was ordained, who subsequently became a professor of Old or New Testament I forgotten which, at one of the most important universities of this country, came back laughing and he said I vowed to uphold all thirty nine articles of the Methodist church and he said I don’t believe a one of them. God will deal in time with that man in His own way if He has not so done already. An oath is a covenant fact, God took an oath and the price of it was Calvary. He will not treat oaths by man casually or lightly. Are there any questions about this subject, yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes…yes…Yes. As though your word is sufficient [laughs].

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes, but the president and others still take an oath of office in terms of the bible. Yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes. We know that that had reference to purely personal matters, everybody was saying for the most trifling reason in terms of their work, in terms of play ‘I swear by the throne of God this and that’ and he forbade them to swear in terms of anything except God and no swearing at all unless it were something in connection with law, church or civil. We know that that is the case because there are oaths taken by the apostles, our Lord himself took an oath at His trial when the high priest said ‘I abjure by the living god to say such and such’, so the oaths were those that were taken apart from the context where God required it. Yes? Any other questions?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes, that’s in the Sermon on the Mount and it’s in chapter 5 of Matthew, beginning with the 33rd verse. Yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes that was a form of making a covenant between men.

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Oh well that was their human covenant in between two people just as marriage is a covenant between two people and its entirely [laughs] biblical. David and Jonathan entered into covenant with each other. Yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] God and His word. Yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] In Matthew.

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes, surely.

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Right, well, of course at the time of the reformation this was a subject of considerable debate because the groups like the Mennonites and the Quakers and others took a very strong stand in terms of these verses against any and all oaths. However, as others pointed out Paul put himself under oath and vow when he returned and the council of apostles approved of it. And there are other examples of that that point to the fact that vows and oaths were taken by the apostles. So obviously they did not see it as a total ban. That apparently was a ban on taking them apart from a religious or a legal context, that in trials or in religious affairs it was permissible because it was a covenant fact. It wasn’t something when you were arguing with somebody about say, baseball statistics, to say I swear that this is true by the throne of God or something like that. So In the King James Version it says let your communication be yea, yea, in other words your conversation, your speech, day by day. Don’t lard your speech with oaths, it’s a different thing when you take an oath in a religious context as when you take office in the church or when you get married and you take a vow there and in a court of law, you see. But your communication or conversation should be yea, yea and nay, nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. So it’s to the conversation that our Lord is addressing Himself.

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes, if any of you do not know and this is Bill Kellogg who gave that excellent interpretation and as he pointed out logically the Quakers and others saw that if you’re not going to have oaths you cannot defend yourself, you have to be a pacifist. The two go together. And the reformers refused to agree with that, very strongly. Any other, yes, did you have another?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes, yes.

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes. We work Monday through Saturday, you see, but on the Lord’s Day we do not work. We’re not even supposed to do any planning on that day. We take hands of our lives because what we say is that Lord, it’s your doing, not mine and because my life is in your hands it isn’t my putting in that extra hour, that extra day of work or I may not work manually with my hands but I’m going to sit down and plan out things on the Lord’s Day because somebody has got to figure this out or I’m in trouble. No, what you do is take hands of your life and say Lord, even as my salvation is your work so my future and my care is your work, therefore, I commit myself into your hands. So the Sabbath requires us to lay off and to admit that its God’s doing. Now, a lot of people cannot have a Sabbath even though they may go to church morning and night because they don’t really rest in the Lord and that’s what is the key. We’re supposed to worship god every day and you’re right there, we’re required to worship Him with all our being all the days of our life but one day in seven we rest and we say its not what I do but what God decrees and ordains and does that is the key and you express that faith by doing nothing in the way of work and doing nothing by planning. I’m stressing that because I’ve known people that consider themselves and are really very, very rigid sabbitarians and I think would look down their noses at every one of us as being too easy going on the Sabbath, they’re so extremely strict, and yet while they would never dream of putting a record on the record player, relaxing or doing anything like that, it’s light and frivolous, they will plan their work.

It’s a good occasion to sit there and do some planning, got to take care of the future you know, look after things, and they don’t see that they’re working; they’re not putting their trust in the Lord.

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Well, in the Old Testament the day of salvation was the day of the Passover when they were spared in Egypt. Our Passover day when Christ saves us is the day of resurrection. So because our salvation is the resurrection it was the first day of the week, naturally, that was celebrated by the early church. So to try to observe the Jewish Sabbath or whichever it is, or to go back to their calendar, I heard once of some who were trying to think in terms of a Jewish calendar so they could observe the true Sabbath, well I don’t know how they could ever figure out now when it was because the calendars are so hopeless and confused and altered and whatnot, at any rate they are in effect saying Christ did not because it’s not His resurrection that is our salvation. Yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] The question is when people use the phrase as God is my witness is that an oath or profanity? That’s a very good question; I think it is an oath, yes.

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] The oaths. Yes…yes…I think that is used in scripture or something very close to it as an oath in the Old Testament, there a number of forms of oaths in the Old Testament.

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes but the oath should be restricted to a legal or a religious context and apart from that our speech should be yea, yea and nay, nay.

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] I don’t think it is, I really don’t.

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] To say as God is my witness because that is a form of an oath.

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes. Yes. Are there any other questions or comments? Well if not let us bow our heads in prayer. Our Lord and our God it has been good for us to be here, Thy word is truth and Thy calling and election our joy. Make us ever mindful our Father of the glory of Thy covenant that we may have the joy, the festival joy of Thy covenant in our hearts at all times. We thank Thee our Father that Thou hast placed Thyself under oath to us and confirmed that oath by the cross of Calvary. Make us faithful to the covenant and zealous in Thy service and ever joyful in Thy kingdom and in Thy word. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Our next meeting will be September 11, the second Friday. Friday, September 11, continuing our study in the doctrine of the covenant.