Systematic Theology -- Salvation

Cosmic Salvation

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Lesson: Government

Genre: Speech

Track: 05

Dictation Name: 05 Cosmic Salvation

Year: 1960’s – 1970’s

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we give thanks unto thee that, in a troubled world, where men claim to be gods over creation, thou art on the throne, and thou art he who sitteth on the circle of heaven and dost laugh at the pretentions of men. We thank thee that thy son is king over creation, and that he will destroy all those who rail against his government unless they fall at his feet and acknowledge him to be the Lord. Give us grace to walk in the faith that Jesus Christ is Lord and King, and that he shall prevail, and that of the increase of his government there shall be no end. Bless us now as we give ourselves to the study of the things that are of thee. In Jesus name. Amen.

Reading from Isaiah 2:1-4, and then 11-18, and our subject in this first section is Cosmic Salvation. “The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

And then the eleventh verse: “The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: and upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, and upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols he shall utterly abolish.”

Salvation is a cosmic face, because Jesus Christ is Lord over all creation, and nothing exists or can exist apart from his government or decree. John tells us, “All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made.” Again and again, scripture attests to this fact. Some of the verses that witness to these are the following:

“By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.” Psalm 33:6

“For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities, or powers. All things are created by him and for him.” Colossians 2:16

“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou has created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” Revelation 4:11, and then,

“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.” Hebrews 1:1-2

Now note, Isaiah tells us that this prophesy is to be fulfilled in the last days. Paul tells us in Hebrew 1:1-2 that these are the last days, that God is now, in these last days, spoken unto us by his son. So that very definitely, the Bible sees the time from the first to the second coming as the last days. We cannot therefore, restrict that term to just the period before the second coming. Too often, scripture uses that term. The prophet Joel, Peter on the day of Pentecost, and Paul, again and again, to the time from the first to the second coming.

What we are told is this: that even as the whole of creation was affected by man’s fall, including the ground beneath man’s feet, so all of creation is affected by Jesus Christ’s victory over sin and death. That victory begins with his resurrection from the dead. He is the first fruits of the new creation Paul tells us, so that the new heavens and the new earth began on the day of resurrection. They shall be unfolded in all their totality and fullness at his coming again, and that we are now citizens of that new creation. When we are redeemed, when we are born again, we are a part of that new creation. Whenever and wherever we have our dominion in Christ, in our home, in our work, in any area where we function. That is a part of the new heavens and the new earth, the new creation. So that we now are in the last days, in the new creation, but the old creation is not yet been done away. It is still alive to a degree in us, although judicially pronounced dead. It is around us and we are to exercise dominion over it, to subdue it, and to bring it into captivity to Jesus Christ, but even as the whole creation fell with Adam, so the whole creation, the whole cosmos, is to be redeemed in the greater Adam, Jesus Christ. So that, as we look around us, we are to say, “Not only myself, but all the world around me has a destiny in terms of Jesus Christ, and over and over again, scripture tells us of that very specifically, that the desert shall blossom and bloom like the rose, that the waste places shall abound, and it’s a glorious promise and not to be spiritualized away.

Man was created to be God’s vice gerent{?}. That is, king under God, priest and prophet over all creation. Man forsook this calling under God, and he sought an independent crown, and an independent power, but Jesus Christ, the new Adam, redeems mankind, and restores in himself man’s original kingship so that he is king over creation. The most common word used in the New Testament for Jesus Christ is Lord, a word that means the absolute property owner. God. King. He is the Lord. All men in Jesus Christ have a duty to exercise dominion wherever they are in every area of life and thought. This kingdom means the destruction of all God’s enemies in time, for he must reign till he hath put all his enemies under his feet, so Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:25. Now, Paul very definitely there means reign before the second coming, before the end of the world, because he then goes on to say, “Then, after he has put all his enemies under his feet, then the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed by his coming again.”

The sad fact is that all around us we have churchmen heavily influenced by neo-Platonism, who spiritualize away the kingdom, who spiritualize away Christ’s victory and triumph, and say it’s just purely spiritual, and they advocate a flight from the world, and they feel that any concern with the material world is wrong, and they demand a pagan, a stoic passionlessness, as though it were godly.

Not too long ago, John Whitehead, a very fine Christian lawyer whom some of you know, at present with a Christian law association, went to Florida, to Miami, to debate Madelyn Murray O’Hare, a notorious, Atheist leader, on television. Well, it was an interesting debate because Madelyn Murray O’Hare usually wins for the simple reason that she doesn’t allow anyone else to speak. She is rude. She interrupts. She never allows them to get a word out of her mouth. She also distorts legal decisions and the law. John Whitehead pointed out again and again that she had misrepresented the law, and misrepresented court decisions. He nailed her in one lie after another, and angered her more than a little. At one point, she flared up and said that it would be better for children to go to porno movies than to Sunday School. At any rate, there were some Christians who wrote in not to rejoice that John Whitehead obviously won a debate that was televised as far as Los Angeles, and viewed by millions of people. No. They were shocked that he called her rude at one point, and two or three times when she made outrageous and blasphemous statements, he looked disgusted, and they felt a Christian should be loving, and sweet a disposition at all times, and to tell Madelyn Murray O’Hare that she was rude. Oh, how could a Christian do such a thing? Well, I wonder what they do with their Bible? What do they do with the fact that our Lord called a king, Herod, “that fox.” Not exactly a term of honor. Or, that he, with a whip, angrily drove the moneychangers out of the temple, or that he turned on his disciples who was trying to think of Jesus’ good, and called Peter “Satan.” Hardly the sweet, tender Jesus that they professed to believe in. No doubt if he returned and they met him face to face, they would crucify him afresh.

But the God of scripture is the Lord of all creation, and his salvation has all creation in view. Therefore, we cannot spiritualize away his triumph. It covers every area of life. The word from the throne is, “Behold, I make all things new. Nothing will be allowed outside of his kingdom, outside of his law and government.

As the Lord told Joshua, “Every place that the sole of your feet shall tred upon, that have I given unto you.” The Bible is full of many very material promises, as in Leviticus 26:1-13, Deuteronomy 28:1-14. In Isaiah 2, which we read earlier.

Some years ago, a college student who did not share my point of view by any means was jolted out of his complacency when, in a college age Sunday School class, the pastor, when he came to Isaiah 2, warned the class not to take it literally. It had to be interpreted spiritually, and he asked him, “How can you interpret spiritually the whole world following Jesus, wars ceasing till the end of the world, and Christ’s people reigning. All the pride, the ungodliness, the unbelief of men broken and humbled?” The pastor went into a long explanation, spiritualizing this way, and it added up to three points really, that there was no triumph first of all. Only a final defeat in history. Our only victory would be in eternity, and second, somehow, being beaten down to the ground here was a spiritual victory. Now, how you can have a spiritual victory when you are losing the world that you’re supposed to conquer, I find difficult to understand, and third, in dealing with the “no war” declaration, the promise that there would be peace from pole to pole, the pastor insisted on reading it as more or less the fact that Christians were to renounce war, and they were to surrender to the enemy. They were to be pacifists in some sense, although he refused to use the word pacifist.

Now, none of the things he said had any relationship to Isaiah 2. None whatsoever. What he was doing was to rationalize cowardice and defeat, but the Bible, as well as history, witnessed to the day of the Lord. Isaiah tells us, in this passage in particular, in verses 11-17, first of all, that God declares war against all his enemies, and he not only declares war against his enemies, but against the trees and the mountains, the very earth they occupy. God, in his law, does not permit us to do that, but God does it. Why? God alone wages total war legitimately, because man makes himself and his world, and his territory ultimate. God moves against man. He moves to destroy man’s confidence and the very ground beneath his feet. The times of judgment again and again in history have been times of disaster. Whenever God moves to bring down an age, you find at the time also natural disasters abounding. Earthquakes abounding. Flood abounding. Hurricanes, tornadoes, because God moves to shake man’s confidence, to shatter it, and himself and the very ground beneath his feet. The times of judgment are also times of disasters, because God moves to destroy all idols, both manmade and natural.

But second, Isaiah tells us in verses 11-18 of chapter 2, within history God moves to bring down man’s pretentions and to exalt himself, and “the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.” Man over and over again is humbled in time, in history. The day of the Lord of Hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty, and upon everyone that is lifted up and he shall be brought low.

Third, to spiritualize this judgment and God’s triumph in time and eternity is really to spiritualize God away into thin air. If you take the plain word of God and spiritualize it away, you’re spiritualizing God away also.

Salvation means that man, created in God’s image in knowledge, righteousness, holiness, and dominion is called upon to fulfill his original task, to exercise dominion in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, and to exercise dominion over all things in every area of life and thought in Jesus Christ. Salvation is a cosmic fact, because Christ is a cosmic King and Lord. “By him were all things made and without him was not anything made that was made.” So that salvation is total. That’s the meaning of the last judgment and of a new creation. Total salvation for the total creation. “Behold, I make all things new,” and therefore, as Christians, we have a calling, to make all things new, to extend Christ’s dominion into every area without exception.

Are there any questions now?

[Audience] Did you say that Christ had his kingship, his control over all things established prior to the second coming?

[Rushdoony] Yes. In 1 Corinthians 15:25-26, “For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” In other words, the second coming will see the end of death. Before that, all his enemies are going to be put under his feet. Yes?

[Audience] Yes, I was wondering, you say God is the only one who wages total war, and {?} denied unto us. You know, I’m curious, what is the distinction that describes our war when it becomes physical{?} war?

[Rushdoony] Yes. We are not God so we cannot wage total war. We have no right to go beyond the word of God. So, God says first, that we’re not wage war against the trees of the field. We’re not to cut down fruit trees that belong to the enemy, because therefore, not only the enemy today, but for the generations to come. He requires sanitation in the camp, so that every man was required to carry a shovel, a small shovel, in his pack, so when he relieved himself, he was to cover what he did, but God can wage total war against the people, because he is totally God and his judgments are absolute. Ours can never be.

[Audience] I was thinking in terms of when is the iron hot, so to speak {?} Christian would strike. What are the distinctions? When do we say, well, we’ve gone too far? {?} Isaiah, war will cease because as you mention, the economic, you know. It’s just a relative profitability. You know, economic enterprise and international trade is more profitable than war, so they beat their instruments of war into ploughshares, but there are situations when you’re inhibited to having any kind of commercial trade and there is a valid place for war. So I was thinking what is the distinction in that?

[Rushdoony] Well, the whole point of war is not because of an inhibition in international trade, but because justice is in peril, or threatened. As a result, what we have to say is, by and large, the Bible does not envision under normal circumstances, offensive warfare. Moreover, it limits warfare strictly by various laws. Moreover, it requires that, in the draft of an army, no one who is newly married can be drafted. No one can go to war until a year after his marriage. Now, in other words, even in the midst of the most important and fearful kind of war or invasion, God says we cannot absolutize the moment. We must recognize that there are priorities. The family is important, therefore I will preserve the family, and the man must remain home for a year. So, you see, God never allows our concerns to overrule his law, and it’s easy to feel that what we’re fighting for is so important that we can afford to overlook what God requires of us, but God does not permit that. Does that help answer?

[Audience] Yeah, somewhat. I’m curious. You know, maybe we’ll talk later.

[Rushdoony] Any other questions or comments? Well, we’ll take a recess for about five or ten minutes.

End of tape