Systematic Theology -- Salvation

Glorification IV

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Lesson: Government

Genre: Speech

Track: 20

Dictation Name: 20 Glorification IV

Year: 1970’s

Our scripture in our continuing study now of Glorification is 2 Kings 5, first of all, 1-5. “Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper. And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife. And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy. And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment.”

Now, let’s skip down to verse 15. “And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant. But he said, As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused. And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules' burden of earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord. In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing. And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way. But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, Behold, my master hath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought: but, as the Lord liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him.

So Gehazi followed after Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running after him, he lighted down from the chariot to meet him, and said, Is all well? And he said, All is well. My master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now there be come to me from mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets: give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of garments. And Naaman said, Be content, take two talents. And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bare them before him.

And when he came to the tower, he took them from their hand, and bestowed them in the house: and he let the men go, and they departed. But he went in, and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto him, Whence comest thou, Gehazi? And he said, Thy servant went no whither. And he said unto him, Went not mine heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants?

The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.”

Now here we have a very moving account of the significance of receiving gifts and in particular, a garment. When the King of Syria gave the silver and the gold as well as the change of raiment to Naaman to take. It was to say if this prophet is what he is, let him be my servant and I will put my glory upon him. Since I am the power in the world today, I will make him a part of my power and my realm. Elisha refused to accept anything because to have accepted a gift under those circumstances, and especially a garment, would have been to acknowledge that the glory of God resided with the king of Syria, and so instead, he gave healing to Naaman. He conferred upon Naaman. He refused to receive from him, but when his servant, in greed, took from Naaman, then the curse that had been upon Naaman in the form of a grievous ailment, leprosy, went to the servant. To accept a garment was a religious act. It acknowledged the dominion of the other. It acknowledged the robe of glory was in his hands.

Thus, when Joseph, as the great man of Egypt revealed himself to his brethren and said, “I am Joseph whom you sold into slavery,” one of the first things he did then was to give them changes of raiment, clothing. When they accepted that from his hands, they acknowledged the dream he had had years before had come true, that the glory of God was now with Joseph. They acknowledged his supremacy which previously, they had fought against bitterly. They recognized that Joseph was indeed the bearer of God’s glory in his time.

Much earlier, remember, Abraham, when he had rescued the kings and his nephew Lot, refused to accept anything from the king of Sodom. The king of Sodom said, “Here. Gold, silver, changes of raiment, here they are,” and Abraham said, “I have vowed to God, and I cannot receive anything.” The robe of glory is an important fact throughout scripture. We have seen, in our previous sessions, something of its meaning. Let’s now examine some further dimensions of the robe of glory.

First, the robe sets forth the doctrine of continuation, or continuity, or succession. We are all familiar with the doctrine of Apostolic succession. The doctrine is a very important one, but not in the sense that it is commonly taught and understood. There is a succession in all of scripture, surely, Israel and the church, but the basic succession in the Bible is not in man. The Bible is divided in two sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament. Now, what is the Old and the New about, the Old and the New Testaments. There are three things in a covenant or testament. The party of the first part, God. The party of the second part, the people with whom he makes a covenant, and the law of the covenant. The party of the first part never changes from one end of the scripture to the other, whether the covenant is with Adam, or with Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, whoever, or with the church. The party of the first part always remains God, the Lord. The covenant never changes, and a covenant is a legal tie, whereby the lesser abides by the law of the greater in return for the protection of the greater. It’s the same covenant, the same law throughout. It’s the party of the second part that is new in the New Testament. Israel is set aside, old Israel, and new Israel, the church, is grafted in.

Thus, there is a succession, and this fact tells us what succession is. It is the Lord’s continuing grace. The Lord’s continuing grace. Always there, always standing by with his covenant, always having, as Elijah cried out feeling he was the last man of the covenant, and with his death, childless, there was to be no covenant, and when God said, “I have my 7,000, the fullness of all those that need be, who have not bowed the knee to Balak.” Like Abraham, therefore, we are required to see the party in the second part as a great throng innumerable, because of God’s grace. A succession is real, but it is not in us nor of us, but of the Lord. Human succession is by birth or inheritance, or election, voting that is, laying on of hands, and gifts, but God’s succession is regenerating grace, electing grace, our inheritance in Jesus Christ. It is supernatural.

Thus, the robe of glory sets forth succession. It comes from Christ. No man can pass on the glory from one to another. We cannot say we love our children, or our friends, or our heirs, and we will give them the glory. It comes from God directly always, so the robe of glory sets forth the doctrine of biblical succession.

Then second, the gift of the robe in Antiquity always established a legal bond with a vow from the recipient. The king gave the subject a gift, a relationship to himself by grace. The necessary response of the recipient was a vow of gratitude and obedience. Very early, baptism meant taking of vows. Today, in baptism, what we often say is, in response to the questions, that promise to do thus and so, and we forget that we are taking a vow in the presence of God. Baptism always involves vows. When men came to be baptized with John the Baptist, he laid vows upon them, orders upon them, in terms of their calling. He told the publicans one thing and he told the soldiers another thing, in terms of their calling. Do thus and so, and do no more in this or that manner, and those who came to be baptized of John said, “Master, what shall we do?” They were placed under the whole of the covenant law, but they also asked specifically in terms of their calling what God required of them.

Then third, as we have already seem, the recipients of the robes of glory attended the king’s court as members of his family. Our court is the church. Our table is the communion, and to be a member of the king’s court and to be present in it is a privilege and an honor.

Then fourth, in all the courts of Antiquity, a king never had an outsider or a stranger do anything for them. Only those whom he made members of his family by grace, by adoption. The king always delegates the duties of the realm to his family.

Now, the emphasis of the world is on positions, on offices, but this is not biblical. In scripture, the office is always secondary to the function. The elder thus, is one who rules according to God’s law. Paul tells Timothy, “If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.” He doesn’t say he desireth a good office. He desireth a good work. A bishop then must be, an he catalogs things, virtues, in terms of function, including “one that ruleth well his own household.” The office was thus defined by function, faithfulness to God’s calling, faithfulness to the king. The true officers are those who do his will, who are truly priests, prophets, and kings in the Lord. Glorification thus, wearing the robe of glory, involves sharing in a corporate kingship in Christ, a kingship by grace, and the meaning of this is set forth powerfully in Revelation 4:10-11. “The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” They see their offices as not an honor to themselves, but as a means to honoring God, so that, as it were, they cast their crowns down before him. They make them totally subservient to the Lord.

Thus, in our kingship, we have been given the flame and the robe of glory, and are called to faith and obedience towards righteousness, holiness, knowledge, and dominion. The true officers are thus members of the royal family by grace. Blood is set aside. Family is set aside. Our Lord himself defines the royal family in these words, in Matthew 12:46-50. “While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

Now, Christ’s definition is very, very important, because what he does here is to define his family, not in terms of blood, but in terms of faith and obedience. The word obey in the Bible is a very interesting one, both in the Hebrew and in the Greek. It means “to harken, to hear,” with ears that are ready to obey, to do, to believe, and to obey. So, both the Greek word, in fact, there are more than one word in both the Greek and the Hebrew for obey, but the two key words as well as some others have the meaning of harkening, of obeying, with faith and obedience brought together in the one word.

Moreover, and here is an extremely important point, our Lord does not define the royal family in terms of his incarnate person. He points to beyond time into eternity, to God’s absolute law and {?}. “These are my family who do the will of my Father which is in heaven.” Here, we have a denial of the so-called New Testament Christianity, because our Lord here points beyond just his life and the New Testament canon. He points to the whole of the Bible and beyond to “my Father which is in heaven.”

Then fifth, the glory of God, the robe of glory, points beyond the moment to eternity. It declares the presence of God. Wherever the flame was carried in the ancient world, it meant the king was just a short distance behind. It was to tell people that the divine glory was coming down the road, and they had better all stand at attention and fall on their faces when he approached. The flame signified the presence. It meant the glory, the power, and the dominion were there. The flames of Pentecost thus said Jesus Christ, the glory of God, is alive and present, and ruling from the throne of heaven.

Now, to put on the robe of glory, to be wearers thereof, to put on the righteousness of Jesus Christ, to say that we have been redeemed through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, which is to say we have put on Christ, we have put on the cross, taken up the cross, we wear the robe of glory, is to witness to his saving, ruling power. It is to say that the saving, ruling power of all the universe is with us and in us. He is the king, and he is present. “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” And we can say that the Lord is with us. Therefore, we shall not fear what man can do unto us. We are the possessors by God’s grace, of the glory. He is the King, and he is present where we are.

Thus, the true charismatic is the one who affirms that Jesus is Lord. He is very present King of kings, and that in his name, we are called to exercise dominion and to subdue the earth under our King. We do not need to say, “I’ve experienced thus and so.” No. By virtue of the atonement, and by his regenerating grace, the presence of God is wherever we are and he will never leave us nor forsake us. We are wearers of the robe of glory.

It’s a sad fact that churchmen too often play the role of Ichabods, the glorious departed. All around us, the humanists claim that the glory is now with them, with their Olympic torches, the Statue of Liberty, their eternal flames, and so on. A dead church has worshippers. A living church has members, members of Jesus Christ, in whom the presence of God and the glory of God are manifest. To be a member is to be a member of Jesus Christ.

Many years ago, W. J. Phythian Adams, in his study The People in the Presence, wrote, “Through the one Lord, Jesus Christ, we have our access in the one Spirit of the one Father of whom are all things, and we unto him, and this access is not merely that of worshippers for whom the old barrier of the priestly courts have been broken down and who have even passed through the veil unto the most holy place of the temple. It is a communion so intimate that we ourselves an hold the presence, or the holy, and as the living stones of his habitation are radiant with his glory.” If we are not members of Jesus Christ, then we are false guests, wearing alien garments, and in the parable of the wedding feast, we are plainly told that we are cast out.

Thus, membership is not in an institution, not in the church per se, but in Jesus Christ. Our Lord defines this membership very plainly in Matthew 25:34-36. “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.” We see how our Lord here identifies himself, not with all men in any humanistic sense, but with his every member, every true believer, and moreover, he says that he will not tolerate any failure on our part to identify him with these same members.

In the Bible, Isaiah is the great prophet of the glory of God. Go to a concordance and you’ll see how often the word “glory” appears in Isaiah. Isaiah tells us that the glory will envelop all men, all nations, create a new heaven and a new earth, increase longevity, alter the nature of the wolf and the lamb, and will make of God’s kingdom a rejoicing, and her people a joy, but of his enemies, Isaiah says, “The Lord is a consuming fire unto them,” and in Isaiah 10:16-17, “Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his (that is, the enemy’s) thorns and his briers in one day.” Our Lord himself declares, “I am come to send fire on the earth.” No one in the world of his day could mistake that. He himself possessed and could send forth the fire. It was not a man-lit flame. He was the living God, a consuming fire. If we are not members of the fire of his glory, of his power, word, and dominion, we are then for the burning.

Are there any questions now? Yes?

[Audience] When God prepares leadership in his saints, for instance, in the case of Job {?} many trials, was God actually bringing him to a position of epistemological self-consciousness before he was able to be the leader, is that’s what was taking place? In other words, in the case of all these people, Abraham, Isaac, the rest of them, were they on the scale of epistemologically self-consciousness, way above other Christians, let’s say, of their time?

[Rushdoony] Yes. All those whom the Lord used, he prepared. Isaiah speaks of God as throwing us into the furnace of affliction that we might be purified. In the Bible, the word “to purify” means to purge out the dross, to refine, to separate the silver from the baser elements. So that the fire of affliction does fall upon those whom God is using in a particularly great way so that they can be brought to a greater purification, and to epistemological self-consciousness, so they might know, in all its implications, the meaning of being the Lord’s. Yes?

[Audience] Taking about the covenant God establishes with man, and marriage is seen as a covenant, {?} how is that {?} parallel to that?

[Rushdoony] If I understand the question, what is the relationship of marriage as a covenant with God’s covenant?

[Audience] Yes.

[Rushdoony] Very good question. Excellent. Very, very discerning. Well, God, through his law, makes a covenant with mankind. All who are the redeemed are in that covenant. Then, they have the whole of their life and all its aspects to place under God’s covenant law. So, their every relationship is covenantal. If they establish a church, it is a covenant body. The covenants with Christ, to obey him, to live by the every word of God. If they are family, they are in covenant with God, and they make their family life and their table, everything, a part of a covenantal relationship with God. So it is that, in marriage, there is a covenant with God. Now, in most marriage ceremonies, there are three covenants, or contracts you might say, to use a modern term, that are made. In the first vow, the husband and wife answer to God in the person of the presiding pastor, who says, “Do you, John, take this man to be thou lawfully wedded wife, and do you promise and covenant before God and these witnesses,” and so on and so forth, and they answer, “I do.” So the first covenant is with God. Then, of course, the very marriage license is a covenant with society in the person of the state, because others have something at stake. So, whether it was, as of old, a church service, you covenanted before the church and the community that you were going to set up a godly family. Incidentally, there are still groups of believers in the South who will not go to the County seat, or to civil authority for a license. They go to the church. It’s only a church ceremony and they cannot divorce, unless they go to the church, too, and it’s a church trial. They’re very strict about it. At any rate, so there’s a covenant with God, a covenant with the church or with the state, as the case may be, and third, each repeats a vow to the other. “I, John, take thee Mary.” They repeat, clause by clause. The covenant, one with the other, and the terms of the covenant always, above and beyond vows, are the word of God, because it’s before God and these witnesses, witnesses to the fact that they have made a covenant before God, which means in terms of God’s word. So, all the various contracts in society are aspects of our covenant with God. You see, most contracts, up until very recent times, were just by word. They were rarely written. Why? Because men, as long as they had a fear of God and a belief in God, felt that they had the biggest restraint on them, precisely God, and his judgment, upon a broken contract.

Now, that is extremely important, because when that breaks down, the whole world of commerce breaks down. There are hints that it is breaking down. So far, it hasn’t been too drastic, but for example, in the commodity market, in the stock market, most transactions are by telephone, by a mere word. You go away from the phone and before you can write out a check or do anything, you’ve lost maybe $50,000. I’ve known of cases like that. You have to live by your word. You’ve made a contract. You’ve covenanted before God, that’s the way it used to be. So, the world of the commodity market and the business world still maintain that because they know that if that’s broken, the whole of the market collapses, and there’s fearfulness, I’ve talked to a number of men. They are afraid of what would happen if that type of thing broke down. The whole world of commerce would begin to crumble, and that’s why we cannot have much of anything like that, that makes business function in a country like Iran, because what function there was mostly done by the Christians and the Jews. You have to have that kind of faith. Do you see how far-reaching this is? To be in the eye of God always, in covenant with him, so that you keep his word with another man to your own hurt. Any other questions or comments? Yes?

[Audience] Would you care to comment on the Middle East and the {?}? [

[Rushdoony] Would I care to comment on the Middle East? Well, what I have to say there is just guesswork, so please don’t put any great stock in it. One of our problems today is the growing collapse of all nations. This is one reason why gold is going up more and more. The only thing that would turn gold around is for us to have no more inflation, to have political, economic, and a stability, and no threats of war. Paper money is a power. It’s not real money. At the first sign of trouble, it runs for cover. So with all these troubles, you’ve had the price of gold skyrocket. Well, in the past few weeks, we’ve had trouble in Iran and, of course, the invasion now of Afghanistan. We live in a time of judgment. As one very fine pastor, Gene Breed{?}, has said, “It’s ridicules to look for a judgment to come. All you have to do is to look at who’s in the White House, and you know we’ve already been judged by the Lord.” It’s certainly the beginning of judgment at the very least, and if you look at all the other rulers, all the nations are in trouble.

Now, if you have a godly society and you have an economy that is free, if you have problems, the orderly processes of godly rule and trade will take care of those problems, but if you don’t, the answer is going to be some form of imperialism. Now, in 1975, we began what some predict will be about forty years of bad weather, very unstable weather, extremes of heat and cold. This is beginning to harm the northern countries like Canada and the Soviet Union, and portions of China. The food productivity in the Communist world has already been bad and it’s declining even more. Meanwhile, their oil supplies from wells that were drilled in the time of the czars are apparently facing increasing depletion. That gives them an inclination to move southward. They certainly are the one foreign power with any real clout in Iran, more or less controlling it. They more or less control Afghanistan, but that wasn’t sufficient. By moving into Afghanistan outright, they now have an effective control on Iran from two directions, plus the door to Pakistan in India. Now, you’re going to need warmer climates for food and you’re going to need oil if you’re in the predicament that they are in, and you’re not going to resort to the free market. The answer is imperialism. What we are seeing today is a very dangerous situation. The weaker people are, the more irresponsible they become. We are weak. The Soviet Union is riddled with weaknesses. Every country in the world is riddled with weaknesses. That makes them dangerous. All of them have everything to lose, and so, they will risk wild adventures. Yes?

[Audience] In the Soviet Union conquest, aren’t we going to feel a little bit of dialectical material {?} two steps forward, one step backward, and might we not be aggressive now in order to secure the Olympic games? {?} and détente will come back and that sort of thing. Do you see this happening {?}

[Rushdoony] It’s very possible. On the other hand, it could be that they feel we are nothing but a creampuff now, and therefore, they don’t have to take a step backward. I think it’s quite likely that we knew what they were going to do. That is, that Washington knew, and that Washington gave them the go-ahead sign, both in Afghanistan and Iran, not figuring that the public reaction would be what it has been. Certainly, we have done everything to make things easier for them and have just slapped them on the wrist. There was a good cartoon in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner not too many days ago. It showed Jimmy Carter in the White House picking up a hot line, all around the White House were Soviet tanks with their guns pointed directly at him, and Carter on the hot line to Brezhnev was saying, “Alright Leonid, now you’ve gone too far. We’re going to cancel your Pepsi franchise.” Any other questions or comments?

Well, let’s bow our heads now for prayer.

Our Lord and our God, we thank thee that thy word is truth, and that the government is upon thy shoulders, not in the hands of Brezhnev or Carter, nor other fools that rule in our time. Give us holy boldness that we may walk in these difficult days in the confidence of thy kingship and rule. Give traveling mercies to one and all as they journey homeward, a blessed night’s rest, and joy in thy kingship, now and always. In Jesus name. Amen.

End of tape