Systematic Theology – Creation and Providence

Creation and Holiness

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 1 of 17

Track: #1

Year:

Dictation Name: 1 Creation and Holiness

[Rushdoony] We begin now our studies in the doctrines of creation and providence, and our first subject is creation and holiness. Before we begin however it is important to call attention to the fact that we have brought together two doctrines which are usually considered separately. The doctrine of creation is studied in one context, and the doctrine of providence in another. The two however are, as we shall see, step by step very intimately related, they cannot be separated. It is, to put it very briefly, precisely because God is the creator of all things in heaven and on earth that His providence prevails over all things; but now to turn to the specific subject of creation and holiness. There is a division today in theology between modernistic theology and ecclesiastical theology. I have made a very differing distinction here than that which is commonly made. Most people would say between modernist theology or fundamentalist or orthodox or evangelical theology. Why this distinction?

Well first of all to look at modernism it is governed by the spirit of the age, this is the essence of modernism. Not the absolute word of God, but the spirit of the age as the governing principle. Truth is seen as man’s discovery, it is something which is in process, it is relative, it grows, it changes, and is by no means absolute. Moreover the truth of modernism is from a universe in process, an evolving, growing, changing, universe. As a result truth can only be known in its existential context. The truth for one day is not the truth for another. Oliver Wendell Holmes put it this way, and I quote “truth was the majority vote of that nation that could like all others.” In other words what Holmes was saying very bluntly was that truth is the side that wins; truth is the prevailing position whether in religion, in politics, in morality, or anything else. There is no truth beyond history.

Now to turn to what I call ecclesiastical theology. IT is the doctrine of worship institutions, of churches; it is supposedly the theology of the word of God. But the word of God is approached in ecclesiastical theology from alien presuppositions, from perspectives that are not strictly Biblical. For example neo-Platonism has profoundly influenced Christianity. Neo-Platonism sees the spiritual as on a higher plain and the material on a lower, even though scripture tells us God made all things and made them all very good; so that all things were created very good, and all things now are fallen.

Berkhoff {?} has said, and I quote “God is the origin of all things, and all things belong to Him and are subject to Him.” This being true we must say that all things having been created by God, all things therefore are equally good and equally fallen except when redeemed. Moreover because all things are made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made, God’s government, His providence, prevails in and through all things. The doctrines of creation and providence require us to view God’s purposes concerning man and the world as a unity. God has a common purpose for all creation and for man, and that purpose He shall unfold in the new creation. God made both the world and the man, both are now fallen, but are predestined for redemption, recreation, and the general resurrection. Roman’s 8:18-23, I Corinthians 15:12-58, and other verses tell us this. The original commission or mandate to man was to subdue the earth, and to exercise dominion over it according to Genesis 1:26-28. This is the heart of the covenant. Abraham and the covenant people were called for this purpose, to obey God, to exercise dominion, to subdue the earth in terms of God’s purposes. Of course the law was given to Moses as the way of dominion.

In Joshua 1 verse 1-9 we have the commission, they are to go forth and to conquer the promise land. Everywhere where the sole of their feet shall tread, that shall be God’s possession, and their possession in the Lord. The great commission given by our Lord to the disciples is a summary of the commission to Joshua, but an expansion also; it is now for all the world. The commission to Adam in Eden was for all the world, and Eden was a pilot project; Adam and Eve where there to establish this pilot product, to see what God required of them, what they were to do, and then to apply that to the whole of the world. But from this task they fell. The last Adam, Jesus Christ, summons us to this task and sends us into all the world to teach all nations, to make disciples of them teaching them to observe “all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”

Providence tells us that God is mindful of and includes in His government, in His concern, in His eternal plan, the sparrow, the very hairs of our head, the flowers of the field, and all things in creation. We are told this very clearly in Matthew 10:29-30. We also have providence clearly set forth in Matthew 6:26-34. Moreover Paul tells us in Romans 8:19-23 that the whole of creation awaits the general resurrection, the glorious liberty of the Sons of God. Just as the earth, while not conscious, responds to gravity, and the flowers turn towards the son, so Paul tells us the ground beneath our feet groans and travails, and the stars overhead and all living creatures are governed in their being by the great coming event, their new or renewed creation at Christ’s coming.

Calvin affirmed this fact in his comment on Romans 8:21, although he does warn us against speculations about the details of this simple affirmation. Calvin wrote, and I quote “it is then indeed meet for us to consider what a dreadful curse we have deserved, since all created things in themselves, both on earth and in the physical heaven, undergo punishment for our sins; what has not happened through their own fault, that they are liable to corruption. Thus the condemnation of mankind is imprinted on the heavens and on the earth and on all creatures. It hence also appears to what excelling glory the sons of God shall be exulted, for all creatures shall be renewed in order to amplify it and to render it illustrious. But He means not that all creatures shall be partakers of the same glory with the sons of God, but that they according to their nature shall be participators of a better condition. For God will restore to a perfect state the world, now fallen, together with mankind. What that perfection will be, as to beast as well as plants and metals, is not meet nor right in us to inquire more curiously. For the chief effect of corruption is decay. Some subtle men, but hardly sober minded, inquirer whether all kinds of animals will be immortal, but if reigns be given to speculation, where will they at length lead us? Let us then be content with this simple doctrine, that such will be the constitution and the complete order of things; that nothing will be deformed or fading.”

Now most ecclesiastical theologians find what Calvin has had to say here repellant. The idea that the general resurrection is going to include the material and the animal creation does not meet their tastes. They prefer an empty new creation, devoid of all things save man. Now the Bible does speak of the destruction of the old creation, for example in Isaiah 34:4 and Revelations 6:14, but it also speaks of the great regeneration of all things, in Matthew 19:28, and of the restitution of all things, in Acts 3:21 and II Peter 3:10-13. Neo-Platonism has a horror for things material, but the Bible gives another perspective. Certainly Revelation Chapters 21 and 22 as they speak of the new creation give us a very material picture. Calvin says that the animals, the plants, metals, are all apart of God’s eternal purpose.

Now Biblical holiness is not neo-Platonic spirituality, an abstraction from material concerns. Rather, it is dominion in and over material and spiritual matters in terms of God’s law. Holiness involves relationship to God, to ourselves, to others, the world around us, to all things, in terms of Gods law and creation mandate. It means we are always before God in word, thought, and in deed in very practical mundane matters. Holiness comes with faithfulness to God’s law, and the routine affairs of life. We read for example in Leviticus 19:1-4, and 9-12 how God regards holiness. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy. 3 Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God. 4 Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the Lord your God. 9 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. 10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the Lord your God. 11 Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. 12 And ye shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the Lord.”

The laws of holiness in scripture deal with our sexual life, our hair and our beards, our fruit trees, and our sanitation. As well as with weights and measures and everything else you can think of, because God’s purpose in time and eternity encompasses all of creation. His law similarly encompasses all of creation. If we take the doctrine of creation seriously we will take His law equally seriously as part of His mandate, of the commission for Godly man in Eden, and in Christ. The doctrine of creation is the affirmation of and the presupposition of the total word of God. Since God made all things and governs all things, he includes all things in His eternal decree in His purpose, in his eschatology, and so no Godly living is possible in abstraction from creation, nor apart from God’s law. The doctrine of creation means as Hebrews 12:14 makes clear, that holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord, is not a matter of neo-platonic abstraction, of our spirituality in a neo-platonic sense, but of faith; and the obedience of faith to the law of God. It means our relationship to God and to His creation is in terms of His mandate and of His law. The definition of holiness does not change between Leviticus and Hebrews, because God does not change. As Malachi 3:6 says “He is the same, He does not change.” Neither does the doctrine of creation change, nor the doctrine of providence. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Let us pray.

Our lord and our God we thank Thee that Thou didst make heaven and earth, and all things therein; and that it is Thy government that prevails over all things. Give us grace therefore to walk day by day, knowing that Thy providence surrounds us, is before us and behind us, and in us and through us, and in all things. Give us grace therefore to come to Thee casting our every care upon Thee, who carest for us. Our God we praise Thee in Jesus name, amen.

We will continue in our next session with the study of the goodness of creation.