Systematic Theology – Creation and Providence

Providence, Faith, and Piety

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 13 of 17

Track: #13

Year:

Dictation Name: 13 Providence, Faith, and Piety

[Rushdoony] Let us begin with prayer.

Almighty God our heavenly Father we thank Thee that Thy providence rules and overrules in all the affairs of men. We thank Thee that as we face these battles, the warfare of the world against Thy church and Thy schools, that we have the assurance that if Thou art for us, who can be against us. Give us grace therefore to fight with holy boldness, in the confidence that we have been called to victory. Bless us this evening in our studies, in Jesus name amen.

Our subject in this first period will be providence, faith, and piety, and our scripture will be Matthew 6, the entire chapter, but with a special emphasis on the first 18 verses. Matthew 6:1-18 but the entire chapter will considered.

“Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

2 Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.

3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:

4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.

6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:

15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

16 Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.

17 But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face;

18 That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.”

Now the rest of the chapter goes on with this same emphasis, to serve God rather than to put on an act before men; to have one master, one God, for no man can serve two masters; and then, not to be anxious but to live without anxiety.

“31 Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? Or, what shall we drink? Or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?  (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

Now what our Lord is doing here is to warn us against pharisaic piety. He declares that pharisaic piety is a practical distrust in God’s providence and in His salvation. He therefore illustrates this by going to three marks of Jewish piety in our Lord’s day. The three signs of a holy man in Israel in our Lord’s day were: first, alms giving, second, prayer, third, fasting. Of course this is what our Lord deals with in the first 18 verses. In verse 1-4 with alms giving, verse 5-15 prayer, and verses 16-18 fasting. Now our Lord does not set these aside, rather he asks us to see the falseness of certain types of pietism, of self-styled holiness which has a man-centered focus rather than the kingdom of God. False piety always has man in focus; true piety, the kingdom of God. False piety trusts in its own work rather than God’s providence; true piety knows that God’s providence ordains and rules in all things and rests therein, it is not anxious about tomorrow.

Now our Lord, first of all, deals with alms, with charity to use the modern word. He deals with it in terms of a very practical concept, rewards. Men seek reward, both those who practice a false piety and those who practice a Godly one, and this is a point we often miss. But man is not autonomous man; God alone has aseity, self-being. God alone can act without reference to anything outside of himself. God alone has no cause outside of His being, nor any possible effect that governs His activities, but man is not God, he is a creature. As a result when we act, we act in terms of a world of cause and effect. We do things knowing certain things will follow, and what we do and the reward we seek reveals our faith, whether we have a God centered emphasis at faith, or a humanistic one. If we believe the world is man’s world, we’re going to look to man for our reward, but if we believe this is God’s world we’re going to look to God for His reward because man does not act in a vacuum. Our Lord says if we are humanist, we are going to look for our approval from men.

Now granted, as children of Adam, we all have that element of Adam and certainly do want the approval of men. But our Lord says that the charity of being humanists has as its purpose a reward from men, their approval, our advancement, a public approval and favor. So that when we do something as humanists we in effect trumpet it, let men see how charitable we are. It is a fact, and I was told this by someone who was connected with one of the major educational institutions of Southern California, that one of the most important keys to getting large donors to give is the fact that if you are sufficiently important it makes any donor who gives to you also important, and it focuses publicity on themselves. Thus if you give five million dollars to Stanford or to USC for a classroom building, with your name on it, it attracts far more attention than if you were to give it to x Christian college in Podunk. The Humanist therefore seeks a reward from men, he seeks their approval, and our Lord puts His finger on it. They give alms to be seen of men, they in effect sound a trumpet before them as they go about their charity; and He says those that do this and call themselves Godly are hypocrites. They’re doing it supposedly for the Lord but they’re actually doing it for men.

Now if you want a reward from men, fine, the publicity will give it to you. But what our Lord says is we should seek a reward from our Father, we should give because we believe in God and in His kingdom; and therefore we do it in secret as it were. Out of the eyes of men, but before God so that God will see it, and our Father which seeth in secret Himself shall reward thee openly. Our Lord places a great stress in these verses on reward, because we are creatures, but He says the rewards we are to seek are from God, not from men. So as He deals with the first form of piety, of the three marks of Jewish piety, charity, he makes this stress very heavily.

Then He goes on to prayer and He deals with the fact that the Pharisees loved to make public the fact of their prayer. They loved to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Of course one religion has made that a holy act, to be seen of men. Does anyone know which religion that is? Islam, Islam. Saint Paul said he is a Jew who is one inwardly, he is a true Israelite who is one inwardly. In other words he is a member of the kingdom of God who is one from the heart, and that was the key verse in the New Testament against which Mohammed waged war. That was the Spirit of the Bible that he fought against, and he issued the statement “he is a true Muslim who is one outwardly.” And so the great marks of piety of Islam are all outward. Nothing inward, sincerity, the heart, an inner faith, never stressed; and so the worst of pharisaic practices Mohammed seized upon and made into a virtue. So what do you do? At the time for prayer, wherever you are, you fall down and you pray with a loud voice so that everybody will know what a good Muslim you are. At all times you trumpet your faith, you make it loud and clear, and the noisier you are they better your faith. Which also means the more violent you are the better a Muslim you are. So that Islam has always had an emphasis on violence, on the outward act, killing the ungodly as a mark of holiness. Islam took that which our Lord condemned, and carried it to the nth degree.

It’s interesting that in our Humanistic age it’s very difficult to criticize Islam without people jumping down your throat. In fact I’ve had Christians write to me very critically because they found criticisms of Islam in some of my writings. At any university campus today if you are critical of Islam, that’s the ultimate, almost, sin for some. Of course to be critical of Christianity is in good favor. But what does our Lord say as He deals with prayer? “But when thou prayest enter into thy closet, when thou hast shut thy door pray to thy Father which is in secret; and Thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” He’s not dealing here with public worship, but with our private prayer. This is between you and the Lord, and we are to cultivate a strong and active prayer life, but it is a private communion with God, and we are not to publicize that fact that we are strong prayer warriors as some make a point of telling you, “pray two hours every morning before we go to work” and so on, vain repetition.

There are many today who believe that it’s a good thing to show your pietism before men publically. The most horrible example of that I saw was a man who made a good witness, and convinced people of what our dedicate Christian was like, when he went into a restroom anywhere in a public toilet, or something, to take out his pocket Testament and read it out loud when he was sitting on the potty. He really believed he was making a good witness, and I think he did witness very effectively to what an ass he was. But that’s the kind of thing our Lord is criticizing. He is requiring us to do that which we do in the areas of the three marks of piety in secret, in secret. It is a private and intimate thing. And then He goes on to give a model of prayer, but saying first “your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask them.” Then why do we pray? What we need cannot be ours unless, first of all, we know our need and beseech God for its fulfillment; and we are to pray for our needs in terms of His kingdom. And so the model prayer begins [Audio interruption, apparently a mouse got in because a door was open]. Our Lord tells us that we should pray “our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it as in heaven.” The focus of our prayer is to be on the kingdom of God. But we are not to forget that we are creatures, and we have creaturely needs. So that immediately from that focus our Lord turns to the fact, “give us this day our daily bread” so that the very most basic of our physical needs are also to be in focus. Then our frailties “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” And then also “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” This has reference to God’s Jubilee. God having wiped the slate clean for us, we too are to remember and to forgive one another from the heart. And then the conclusion “for Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever amen.” The focus of our praying has to be, the beginning and the end, God’s kingdom.

Then our Lord goes on to say that if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. The word trespasses has reference very clearly to those faults, those frailties that mark all of us, debts to the more serious offenses. Then our Lord turns to the third mark of Jewish piety, fasting. Again the emphasis is on fasting in secret. We are not too fast so men will know we are for a time giving ourselves to fasting so that we might draw closer to God, so that we might be able to concentrate more fully on things of scripture, or whatever our purpose may be in the fast. In no way are we to make it public, it is to be between ourselves and God. Now notice the heavy emphasis “in secret”, in secret. This is an emphasis which is so marked that in a sense we can compare it to this; just as husband and wife relationships are Godly thing, but they are in secret, so these marks of piety are in secret because they establish our relationship with the Lord.

This does not mean that our faith is to be in secret, but the marks of our piety are not to be trumpeted before men, because it is not from that we look for a blessing and a reward, but from God. He is the source of our treasure. He who has an evil heart will have false treasures, and the result of the humanistic faith is when we seek the approval of man, we are marked by anxiety, anxiety. Whenever humanism triumphs in a culture it becomes an aspirin age so to speak, a time of alcoholism and drugs. Because people move in terms of the approval of others; and when people move with this kind of focus, with a focus on the public, the public’s approval, they have a problem. Because the public is fickle, and we are constantly trying to please men whose point of view is changeable. Just as fads are here today and gone tomorrow, so too is public favor. Every age of humanism therefore is an age of anxiety. How can you be with it, so to speak, from the time of the Greeks to the present with see this sort of thing, a fad results and everybody jumps on the bandwagon. But the minute everybody gets on the bandwagon nobody wants to be on it, they want public approval and favor, they want to be in with the group, they also want to be different. And so something else is started, and the person who seeks to be hip or in, will then be in a constant state of anxiety because the crowd constantly moves in directions.

This applies not only to those who are followers, but those who are leaders. The people who were the famous jet-setters of a decade ago were constantly spending their time trying to fathom what the new direction of interest would be, and then to be on the bandwagon before anybody else was; and their life therefore was a continually anxious one. Especially with the leadership in our humanistic age the drug culture is most prevalent. But when we seek our reward and our approval from God, we have a God who says “I am the Lord, I change not” and we know that we are approved of God if we obey Him. But it is a relatively simple matter to have God’s approval, believe and obey, and instead of anxiety we have peace.

As a result the kind of piety that our Lord criticized was a piety of anxiety, of endless taking thought of tomorrow, of being concerned about the group and its opinions. Today we have an age of anxiety. Existentialism in fact says that anxiety is the mark of existentialism, and it is of course; because the existentialist takes the government of all things upon his shoulders. The Christian on the other hand knows that the government is upon Christ’s shoulders and he is content to leave it there. Thus we have a choice, if we do not believe in providence then our faith in piety will be humanistic. The alternatives are either Christian faith or Humanistic anxiety.

Are there any questions?

Yes?

[Audience member] What is the purpose of fasting, does the Bible…?

[Rushdoony] The purpose of fasting briefly is this. First of all there was only one required fast in the year, on the Day of Atonement, and then only till sundown. Apart from that, fasting was for emergency purposes, day of prayer, and national disaster. The purpose of fasting was to take off our eyes from the normal course of events, from eating, so that we might be able to concentrate on certain things religiously, intellectually, spiritually. Fasting does produce that ability to concentrate. It tends to clear the mind and enable greater concentration, it removes the great deal of the sluggishness that most of us have, especially in our day and age, because we tend to be overfed. So the purpose of fasting is that. Now it is not a requirement, it’s simply an option. There’s no virtue in fasting just to be fasting. Similarly there’s no virtue in praying by the yard just because you feel you should be praying, you see.

Yes?

[Audience member] Does the subject of prayer books{?} to this idea

[Rushdoony] What was that again?

[Audience member] Does the subject of prayer books, people writing down prayers in public, get into this passage at all?

[Rushdoony] Does the subject of prayer books fit into this passage? No. Prayer books, if we make them a substitute for our own prayers, can be very bad in their influence. But if we use prayer books wisely as a guide to stimulate our own prayer, that’s a different matter. Too often because of our own particular interest we will tend to focus our praying only on a very limited area. But when we pray in terms of a prayer book sometimes we suddenly see things that we should be praying for, and we have not. So a prayer book can be very, very helpful if we use it wisely. Not as a crutch, but as a means of growth.

Yes?

[Audience member] In verse 17 it says anoint your head and wash your face when you fast, is there any specific meaning to the anoint your head, or is it just for grooming? Is there any significance to that?

[Rushdoony] yes. What does it mean what scripture says “anoint your head and wash your face”? Well since fasting often took place on a day of mourning, and of national repentance, that was the more common time of fasting, very often grief stricken people would, as a symbol of mourning, but ashes on their face to indicate “we are undone” just as when a person dies “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” used to be apart of the service. So they are indicating in a sense we are like dead men, we’ve been undone and we pray to God as the living dead. This was made into a ritual so that people would walk around with marks like that to indicate “You see, I’m fasting, what a holy person I am. I’ve gone around three days with an ash smear on my forehead to indicate I’m fasting, and looking very mournful all the time.” So people would think “my, what a sacrifice he’s making, a very spiritual man, three days he’s fasted, or four days.” The purpose was to gain a reputation for holiness, and so our Lord says “no, even if you’re grief stricken, don’t show it. Wash your face, anoint yourself, put on makeup as it were. In other words, look normal, this is something between you and the Lord; you’re not publicizing the fact that you’re trying to be holy.

Then you’ll have a reward from men, but not from God.

Any other questions? Well we’ll take a five minute break then.