Systematic Theology – Eschatology

The Eschaton and Man

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 2 of 32

Track: #2

Year:

Dictation Name: 02 The Eschaton and Man

[Rushdoony] Our scripture this morning is from Genesis 18 verses 17 following, and our subject the Eschaton and man; Genesis 18 beginning with the seventeenth verse, the eschaton and man.

“17 And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do;

18 Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?

19 For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

20 And the Lord said, because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;

21 I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.

22 And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the Lord.

23 And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?

24 Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?

25 That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

26 And the Lord said, if I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.

27 And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes:

28 Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, if I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it.

29 And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty's sake.

30 And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there.

31 And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty's sake.

32 And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake.

33 And the Lord went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place.”

Last week we began our study of the meaning of eschatology. Eschatology is the doctrine, ostensibly, of the last things; of the second coming, the end of the world, the judgment, the state of the dead, and related subjects. As we saw however eschatology has been severely limited. The word eschatology comes from eschatos and eschaton, meaning the end, the conclusion, the extreme. In its original meaning it means not only end time, but end point. And as we saw last week in the Bible it has both meanings; an end point is not the end time. The flood was an end point for the world before the flood, the fall of Babylon was the end point for Babylon, the fall of Rome was the end point for Rome, and so on. And when various men meet their judgment it’s the end point for them, but not the end time of the world. Most commonly the day of the Lord in the Bible is not the end time, it is the end point. God again and again proclaims the day of the Lord, the end point for a judgment on a particular person or people; and so we have to see eschatology not only in terms of the last things in history, at the end of the world, but God’s judgments again and again in history as He brings an end point to something that is happening.

The flood, thus, was an eschatological event. God judged the world before the flood, and he destroyed it. We read in Genesis 6:11-13 “11 the earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. 13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” Now what does God do here? It’s important to know what God says here to understand what eschatology is all about. First, God announces an end, a judgment. The corrupt earth is to be destroyed; at the same time it is to be the salvation of the human race in that Noah is to be preserved and God is going to work through Noah to establish a covenant and his salvation.

Second, very important, God takes Noah, a man, into His counsel. It was not necessary in every case that God took a man into His counsel, as with Abraham, for the man to know. But God takes man into His council. He comes to Noah and He says “Noah, this is what I’m going to do to the world, and this is your part in all of this.” Again He does this to Abraham, He says as we read in verse 17 of Genesis 18 “and the Lord said ‘shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?’ and He says ‘I am telling you Abraham, because you shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and the whole earth is going to be blessed through you.’ Moreover, I know that what I tell you, you will learn something from and you will command your children to be obedient and faithful to me, to keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment.” And so God includes man in the knowledge of His council.

This is a central aspect of eschatology. Most people today have a sick concern with eschatology. Their only question is, not, “what will the Lord have me do?” but “how will it affect me, how can I escape from the tribulation? How can I plan to avoid the problems that are coming with God’s judgment?” But God speaks of the things to come, to Abraham and to all His saints, to prepare them for their world governing responsibilities. Abraham had to know in order to teach his descendents concerning God’s calling, and God’s commandments. And a precondition of eschatological blessings and deliverance is, he says, keeping the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken of him. In other words, man has a part in bringing in the eschaton, God’s end. Eschatology thus gives us the framework of history.

In Genesis 3:15 we read “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy see and her seed, it shall bruise (or crush) thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” God says here that there’s going to be a war unto death between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the women. That in the process the seed of the women shall be hurt, shall be injured. His heel shall be crushed, that’s the old-fashioned meaning of the word bruise. But the head of the serpent shall in due time be crushed by the seed of the women, who is Jesus Christ. Thus eschatology, the doctrine of last things, gives us the framework of history. It tells us mans place in that purpose. Thus we do not truly understand, or appreciate the meaning of eschatology, the doctrine of last things, if we do not see that it tells us that we are to do something. God declares “I shall bring in this judgment, and this is your part that you must play.”

For example, in Isaiah 30 verse 20 & 21 the prophet declares that even when we go astray, when we turn our backs on God’s prophetic service, we are still pointed towards His eschaton, His end, by a word of warning. “And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner anymore, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers, and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying ‘this is the way, walk ye in it’ when ye turn to the right hand, and when we turn to the left.” Now the Bible is clear that we cannot know God’s timing concerning the end time, the end of all things. We are plainly told by our Lord that of that day and that hour no man knows. We cannot know the precise timing of God’s eschatons.

Now, we do know it, we may suppress the knowledge of judgment, but God has written an inescapable knowledge in our hearts so that we do know there is to be a judgment. So there are two errors concerning God’s eschatons, God’s judgments, God’s ends. One is many people are determined to walk by sight, and so they look up all kinds of prophetic passages and supposedly prophetic passages, and they have charts on the wall of Sunday School classes, and sometimes in the church, telling you exactly when it’s going to happen. We had several predictions that the end of the world would take place in 1975, and now it’s been postponed by these self-styled prophetic experts to 1984 or 85. Well, this is clearly an error.

The second error is by those who say that we can know nothing, it’s all unknowable, and therefore there is no use wasting time studying the scriptures about God’s eschaton. But God gives us the framework; He tells us these are His ends. He does not tell us the moment, nor the day, nor hour when it is to come, but He says “the wages of sin are death. My judgments shall come.” And very early in the Bible God says “shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?” God reveals to man His eschaton, His end, in order for man to work together with God towards that goal. In Abraham’s case we see certain aspects of this. First, the goal, the end, the eschaton, the judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah is totally determined by God. God does not ask Abraham “shall I do it?” He tells him He is going to do it.

But second, Abraham is encourage to have a role in it, to understand it so he can better know God, and better know how to work in God’s universe. Abraham in encouraged to pray. Our Lord tells us we must work while it is yet day, for the night cometh when no man can work. Abraham prayed to God, in the process he learned much about God’s forbearance and mercy. He began by asking “wilt Thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked, and shall the judge of all the earth do right?” Abraham had a Nephew, Lot, in Sodom. He was concerned for Lot who was, the scriptures tell us, a righteous man. God saved Lot, but He did not tell Abraham that He would. He required Abraham to trust Him. And so it was that Abraham asked “would You spare the city for 50 righteous men?” Abraham knew the sin of Sodom and so he recognized the need of judgment. Something we need to recognize. We need to look at the world around us and say “because there is a God, it must be judged.” This was the greatness of Salvian the Presbyter. Augustine was moved to tears, and grief, and despair, by the fall of Rome. But Salvian who was involved in the grief and tragedy much more closely declared, “Because there is a God, Rome must be judged.” This was the greatness of Salvian. And so Abraham looked at Sodom and recognized it had to be judged, and we too have to look at the world around us and recognize it needs judgment.

Abraham’s questions was, would you spare Sodom for 50 righteous men? And the Lord said “Yes, for 50 righteous men I will spare Sodom.” Then Abraham said “would you spare it for 45?” “For 45, yes.” “For forty? For thirty? For twenty? For ten?” and the answer in each instance was “yes”, and then Abraham asked no more, because he knew there were not ten righteous men in Sodom.

What does it mean that God would spare a city for 50 or 10 righteous men? Now righteous means just, righteousness is justice, they’re the same words; identical, no difference in meaning. One is a more old-fashioned word, the other a more recent word. Now, what God means by a righteous man is one who stands for justice, who works for it, whose whole heart, mind, and being is dedicated to righteousness. He does not mean someone who doesn’t steal from his employers till, or cheat on his wife, someone whose righteousness is just to stay in his corner out of harm. He means someone who is positively righteousness, whose whole heart, mind, and being, are dedicated to furthering God’s justice, God’s righteousness.

Our Lord gives us the answer in the beatitude when He says in Matthew 5:13&14 “Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its savor, if it is no longer capable of being a preserving agent in the world, then it is good for nothing but to be cast out to be trodden under foot of men. And salt in those days, when used, was used to preserve meat and other things in a salt brine. When it was no longer a good brine what was done with it was to put it on a pathway, or a roadway. Not on your garden because it could damage the plants, but on a pathway where nothing would grow, and it was trampled underfoot of men. Our Lord went on to say “ye are the light of the world.” So we are called to bring the light of God to the world, and to be the preserving agent, the salt of the earth. Then we are righteous men. Either we grow in terms of God’s eschaton, or we are judged, and we are trampled by it. If we are not a part of God’s eschaton we are judged by it. Thus a very basic fact in eschatology in the doctrine of last things, which is forgotten today, is that God declares man has a part in it. Not in establishing it, or bringing it about, but working to further God’s purposes. “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?” God does not hide it form Adam, because he was told what would happen, nor from Noah, nor from Abraham, nor from His chosen people, nor from His saints through the ages.

We must recognize that God’s eschaton is a reality, that God’s judgment works in this world, and we may like Abraham love our relatives, or we may love our country, but we cannot say because of our love that there can be no eschaton, no judgment, no end for it. Rather we must proclaim the word of the Lord, we must apply the righteousness, the justice of God, we must work to be faithful servants. Because if we are not, then we are a part of the judgment, we are among those judged rather than among those delivered, and prospered, and blessed. And instead of saving our country, we destroy it. Instead of saving our loved ones we are with them a part of the judgment. Man has a place in God’s eschatology, a very central place, and so we cannot discuss the doctrine of the last things without understanding man’s place there in. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God we thank Thee that Thou hast not hidden from us those things which Thou hast done and shall do age after age. Give us grace therefore to walk in the knowledge that Thy purpose, Thy goal, Thy judgment in history is true and righteous altogether. Make us men of righteousness, of justice, that we may reclaim the world from its evil ways, from its doomed course. And make us again a people of righteousness, a land wherein justice dwells. Bless us to this purpose we beseech Thee, in Jesus name amen.

Are there any questions now on our lesson?

Yes?

[Audience member] How does a defective eschatology produce or relate to dependence on the rule of the state as opposed to the rule of God?

[Rushdoony] Very good question. How does a defective eschatology promote the rule of the state as against the rule of God? When you have a defective eschatology you produce quietism {?}. Now quietism was once a movement within the church, catholic and protestant, it was a movement which has now become a temper, a rather prevailing temper whereby all too many people withdraw from the world of action. They may or may not believe in predestination, but whether they believe in it or not they are not predestinarians, they are fatalists, and there is a difference. Quietism leads to fatalism, everything’s going to happen irrespective of what we do, therefore you withdraw from the world and you saw “let things happen, because they’re going to happen” And the quietist surrenders the world to the devil. Now eschatologies, whether they call themselves pre, a, or postmillennial if they do not recognize man’s part in God’s eschaton will be quietist. They will withdraw, and the consequences are deadly for the Christian church. Sad to say most of the prevailing forms of eschatology today do call for withdrawal, they do not see any hope in human activity. Apparently they believe the only ones whose activities can accomplish something are the evil ones. Evil can succeed when it works, but supposedly the works of the Godly, of the righteous, of the redeemed, are ineffectual. Now to me that’s nonsense, but that’s the prevailing opinion.

Yes?

[Audience member] I noticed in this particular passage with Abraham, he was not called upon to be a direct influence in the judgment. To what degree is the church called upon to be a direct influence in the judgment that God puts down upon this earth?

[Rushdoony] Well in Noah’s case he was summoned to preach to them concerning the judgment to come, we are told in the New Testament, and to prepare an ark for his deliverance. In the case of many other saints they were told what they had to do, what they had to declare to people around them, the righteousness that they were to manifest, and how they were to stay judgment. Now, we have a dramatic example of a judgment stayed, an eschaton deferred for generations. In the case of Jonah and Nineveh, when to Jonah’s surprise and dismay the people heard him and were converted. He would of preferred to see Nineveh Judged, but Nineveh repented, it was converted, it turned its way to justice for a time.

Yes?

[Audience member] So in large measure the preaching of the apostles related not to the immediate return of the Lord so much as perhaps in the return of judgment on Rome?

[Rushdoony] Yes, first our Lord had declared the judgment which would overtake Judea, and had predicted the fall of Jerusalem. Now that, to the disciples who were very intensely patriotic Jews, was a tremendous crisis. We fail to appreciate what the New Testament tells us about some of these, they were intensely loyal and devoted Jews. Some were even called by the name of zealot, meaning that they were almost fanatical about their adherence to the zealots, a revolutionary party. This had been their background, their association, before they came to our Lord. We fail to appreciate the extent to which they did convert, countless numbers of their people, and the extent to what they did that has never really been investigated. But we do know that all through the empire the early church was predominately Jewish; that this Jewish influence and pre-eminence continued for some time to come. That although a couple of sects of Jewish Christians broke away and left the church, it is an illusion to believe that that was the case with all the Christians, they were the major factor in the early church for untold generations, and their influence was preeminent in some areas for centuries.

At least two popes, for example, centuries after the New Testament, many centuries, were of a Jewish background from ancient Jewish families. In fact many of the most important families in Italy to this day have a Jewish ancestry, very remote now, but very much present. All you have to do, for example, is to turn to the Hymnal and you’ll see that one of the really great old hymns is The God of Abraham praise, which is, in the trinity hymnal, number 32. The translation we have is by Thomas Olivers, about 1770, but the tune is called Leoni, and we’re told arranged from a Jewish melody, which is true. Now it’s called Leoni after the family that adapted it, a very prominent Christian family in Rome. And it’s an interesting thing that in our lifetime a very prominent president of Italy was named Leoni, coming from that very ancient family. So the persistence of that is very great.

So, the apostles had a concern, and they did remarkable things in fulfilling that concern. First for their own people, and second to go into all the world to preach the gospel. They did a magnificent job of it, they fanned out to the far corners of Europe, into North Africa, into Asia, and I mean not just Asia minor but far into Asia, probably into China as well as India.

Yes?

[Audience member] At what point, this is a rather long question I guess, but at what point, and I know it’s down through history, we’ve seen the church do this, John Knox’s for instance, and Calvin talked about the role of minor magistrates and that. At what point, if any point, is the church required to take up arms, or to take the sword as it were, and to what point and to what degree is this required?

[Rushdoony] The church is never to take up the sword. That’s not the function of the church, and it is a mistake for the church ever to feel that it should. It has been a disaster and a tragedy whenever the church has. Now citizens at times have had to do so, but there’s a difference. Moreover I think we are a long ways away from any such necessity. One of our problems is that we have not done the things that we can do, beginning with voting. All top many evangelical Christians are not voting? Even more, very few Christians are contributing to the political process.

We have a number of excellent groups which are very important for us to contribute to, and very strongly congenial to our own faith and position. The conservative caucus, the committee for a free congress, and here in California Gun Owners of America, Gun Owners of California, Law and Order Committee, all run by Bill Richardson. Now these are excellent agencies. Why don’t we use the tested instruments of the electorate, and take over? We can do it, so it’s a serious mistake to think of that type of thing because we haven’t began to utilize the courts properly. We’ve had some important church and state trials for five years, but we’ve done it on the defensive. Now one of the things that we hope to announce in the not-too-distant future, within the year, is a sister foundation designed especially to train lawyers, and to fight cases, and to take the offensive. So you see we haven’t begun to use the positive means at hand.

Well if there are no further questions let us bow our heads now in prayer.

Our Lord and our God we thank Thee that Thou hast raised up unto Thyself men all over the earth who are working to bring men into justice, to righteousness, and to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and to serving Thee and Thy kingdom, and bringing for the nation whose banner is righteousness and truth. Give us grace to be faithful, unflagging, and ready to give in this struggle. That we may triumph, and that the judgment we see may be upon evildoers and not upon us, and that our nation may be purged and made whose, and that we may again be a strong people in Thee. Bless us to this purpose we beseech Thee in Jesus name, amen.