Systematic Theology – Eschatology

Eschatology of Everyday Life

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 5 of 32

Track: #5

Year:

Dictation Name: 05 Eschatology of Everyday Life

[Rushdoony] Let us begin with prayer.

Glory be to Thee oh God, for all the joy with which Thou hast created all things, has filled our lives through our so great salvation, and has made heaven and earth to resound with Thy glory. Oh Lord our God, give us the joy of our creation all the days of our life, that that song with which the morning stars began creation may resound to the end of time, and my fill our days with the joy of the Lord, and with confidence in Thy victory. Bless us this day by Thy word and by Thy Spirit, and grant us Thy peace. In Jesus name, amen.

Our scripture this morning is from Luke 19 verses 12-27, our subject, “the eschatology of everyday life.” Luke 19:12-27

“12 He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.

13 And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.

14 But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us.

15 And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.

16 Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds.

17 And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.

18 And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds.

19 And he said likewise to him, be thou also over five cities.

20 And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin:

21 For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow.

22 And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow:

23 Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?

24 And he said unto them that stood by, take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds.

25 (And they said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds.)

26 For I say unto you, that unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him.

27 But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.”

We have been studying the doctrine of eschatology, eschatology the doctrine of last things. And we have seen that the word eschatos/eschaton means not only the end time, but the end point. But unhappily, too often, churchmen have restricted eschatology to the doctrine of end times. However, if we weaken the doctrine of eschatology in relation to end points, we also weaken it with regard to the end time. History has an end time, but also many end points. The Bible is God’s law word, it gives us God’s commandments and this history of God’s works in time. Both reveal end points. All human actions have a moral framework. We live and move and have our being in God, and there is no morally neutral realm; hence there is no eschatologically free realm. Our lives reveal our faith, or morality, and our eschatology. Paul therefore says in I Corinthians 10:31 “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”

To limit eschatology to the end time is to deny the relevance of God’s law, of morality and of history. Antinomianism leads to eschatological distortion. Our subject today is the eschatology of everyday life. All around us we see that ideas have consequences, acts have consequences, lives have consequences. Paul tells us in Roman’s 13 verse 3 that rulers are to be a terror to evil works; therefore every judge, every police officer, ever law officer, is serving God’s eschatology when he fulfills God’s mandate for Him. He is bringing an end point to evil, to sin, to crime. Every school teacher who tells a child that: “you do this and you’re going to get punished, but you do your lessons properly and the results are going to be good for you all your life” is applying eschatology. Parents who warn their child and say: “You do that and you’re going to get your backside warmed” are applying eschatology; even as when they tell their child: “now you do this and you’re going to get a surprise, a good one” that’s applied eschatology.

The curses and the blessings of God’s law set forth the end point of faithfulness and of lawlessness. All who work to establish the jurisdiction of God’s law in any and every area of life, and in every human agency, are thereby instruments of God’s apply eschatology and history. The law speaks repeatedly of end points, and we have many expressions for it in the Bible; the end of days, the latter days, and so on. Now, when men as so many do in our day, and have in other times of history, limit eschatology, the doctrine of last things, to the end time, to the end of history, to the end of the world, to the second coming, the consequences are very serious. People are morally disarmed first of all, because the historical end point is robbed of meaning. The relevance of end points, of blessings and curses, is diminished and time loses much of its meaning. As a result when we deny that there are eschatological end points in history, we give the world over to the humanist because then they say “it’s our meaning that applies.” Then second, man was created in God’s image; hence his being is governed by God’s purpose, every atom of our being is God’s creation, every atom moves in terms of His purpose. Sin deflects and harms that purpose, and as a result in the sinner a false eschatology develops.

For example, in our time scientific socialism is a popular eschatological goal. Churchmen who deny God’s end points in time, His end point eschatology, then tend to replace it with an imminent any moment return. In other words they’ve said “there’s no meaning in history, it’s only the end time.” So they’ve robbed history of meaning, they’ve robbed their lives of meaning, and how do they replace it? By saying “well now, on no you cannot say that they’re end points, eschatological end points, or that the law functions.” So they bring meaning into the present by saying “well, Jesus is coming soon, any day now” and therefore they further harm action in time today. The Bible gives us no warrant for saying that, because we are told the whole world must be brought under the dominion of Christ, and that every knee shall bow to Him, and every tongue shall confess Him until there is only one enemy for Christ to destroy, death, and then comes the end.”

Now, if you deny end point eschatology, the eschatology of the law, the eschatology of everyday life, the only way you can bring meaning into history is to talk about “oh He’s coming tomorrow maybe, or tonight.” Or, as some bumper stickers a few years ago, under the influence of Hal Lindsey had it, “warning, in case of”, something like, “in case of rapture, this car will be driverless.” That kind of nonsense.

Now we need to look at some of the central focal points in God’s end points, and then see how when you have an end point eschatology, you also have an end time eschatology. Now what is basic eschatology, in the doctrine of last things? Well, as we saw a few weeks ago, retribution is central to eschatology. The wages of sin will always be death; you cannot put your hand in the fire without any protection without being burned. There are results, end points in history; and there is retribution at the end of history, heaven and hell. We cannot exclude retribution from history, both collective and individual. We’ve seen it, our history books give us endless end point retributions. The fall of Babylon, of Assyria, of Rome, and we’re going to see some tremendous falls of powers before the end of this century. These are end point retributions, because there is also a culminating end time retribution.

God has a pattern in history which manifests itself in all its fullness at the end; and so we can count on what David said to Saul. “The Lord render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness, for the Lord delivereth thee unto my hand today. But I would not stretch out my hand against the Lord’s anointed.” David knew that he could refrain from murdering Saul, as Saul was trying to murder him, because God was at work in history. So he could say “I could’ve killed you, but I didn’t. But believe that God will render to every man his due.”

When justice declines in the state, it is because it has already declined in the church. When there is no hell in religion there is no justice in society. In other words retribution, judgment, an end point, is basic, and if there is no heaven in your faith there is no justice in your society. You live in a world of continual limbo where nothing is really alive.

Then second, very clearly if you look at the end time, the resurrection of the dead is central to that doctrine. But resurrection is basic to everyday life, to the eschatology of everyday life, because regeneration being born, being resurrected from the death of sin, is basic to our life; and so the summons in time is, in the words of Isaiah 61, “awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” These words of Isaiah Paul repeats and puts into a Christian context for the followers of our Lord, and then he goes on to tell them to redeem the time, an eschatological command, for the days are evil. Time itself, the world around us, all are to be redeemed; and Isaiah tells us that as this redemption is to be accomplished the lifespan of man shall increase dramatically, and the world of nature around us will be greatly altered.

Then third as we look at end points and end times, we see that the end time there is a new creation. History began in Eden with a hint of the end time, an eschatological paradise, and men are to work toward establishing God’ kingdom in time, end point fulfillment. Isaiah 2 verse 1-4, chapter 11:6-9, 51:3, 65:17-25, and many, many more deal with this; and of course our text today deals with it very, very emphatically. The parable our Lord teaches, the parable of the talents or the ten pieces of money, or pounds using the English term, is this: a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive a kingdom for himself. And so he called the servants and said “here I am giving you so much money to invest, occupy till I come.” Now the word that is translated as “occupy” is a very interesting one. It means exactly what the English says, but there’s an additional meaning to it, a more basic meaning. When we occupy something we take it over, we occupy this home.

Now the root meaning of the word is very, very important, it means to trade, to do business. In fact you have the word again a little later when he says that, when he came back he asked that he might know how much every man had gained by trading, by occupying. Now this is the word in the New Testament which is only used of Man’s activity. So God is saying to man “you must occupy, the talents I have given you, the abilities I have given you, the calling I have given you, is to be used to occupy, to trade, to enter into the business of this world, and to extend your dominion into one area after another, and to apply my law word, to make it an area of my dominion; and you as a king under me, a vice jarit {?} are to occupy till I come. So the word means a continual acting, a continual investing, to further what you’re doing.

This may be one reason why this is not a popular parable today, because this is of course precisely the kind of thing a good business man does. He is trading, he is investing, he is occupying. He is extending the area which he controls. Well our Lord is saying “occupy in My name, and for My kingdom, until I come.” Trade, invest, increase, till I come. And the one who will not do this is judged. “Unto everyone which hath, shall be given, and from him that hath not even that he hath shall be taken away from him.” To most people this seems grossly unfair, I’ve been told by people “that is one of the worst statements Jesus ever made.” Is it? Let’s put it in very simple and elementary terms, school children. The child who goes through the second or the third grade and learns very well that which they had, who has occupied an area of knowledge, and extend her or his scope of understanding, what happens? To that child more shall be given, because now they have the ability, with their investment in knowledge, to do far more. But the one who has sat back and just tried to get by will lose more and more, even that with which they have shall be taken from them. It’s fact of life, so our Lord says “occupy” and to him that hath, more shall be given. Well you do it outwardly, you bless the child, you bless the university student, you reward them, you give them better jobs. And what about the one that has gone through and barely learned how to read? They end up with less and less, everything is taken from them. Do you see what our Lord means? This is the eschatology of everyday life.

Further more, as we look at end point and end time eschatology, we find that in some sense there is a new temple, the temple in the beginning, and the banquet, and the temple at the end. Revelation says in a sense, that there will be no temple there because the whole thing, the whole of the new creation, is a temple. And the beginning begins now, in that every believer and every true church is a temple of the Holy Spirit. And Revelation tells us there is to be a great Messianic banquet, and we have now in time the breaking of bread together, and the communion service, all of which are foretastes of the communion that is ours in Christ. End points and end times are related; because Jesus Christ says “I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the ending. Which is and which was, and which is to come, the almighty.” He is the first and the last, and everything in between, and everything reflects that which He has decreed. And so we have the eschatology of everyday life, it begins with children who study in school, it is all the days of our life, those who occupy, who trade, who increase that which God has given to them, are blessed and more is given unto them.

And those that have not, even that which they have shall be taken away from them, and they are in hell here and now and in the world to come; because they would not occupy, they would not trade, they would not develop, they want to be themselves. And the picture of hell that the Bible gives us is one of total isolation, every person talking endlessly to himself, unable to communicate to anyone else because he is his own universe. This is why a non-Christian existentialist philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, in his very dramatic play No Exit, a picture of hell, shows people walking into a room and sitting there, each one talking really endlessly to himself, wondering if the door is locked and never trying it to see, because nothing is real outside of themselves. They are pure existentialist, and no-one ever goes over to the door to see ‘can I walk out?’ No one ever really talks to anyone else because no-one is ever interested in anything except himself.

But we are called in terms of the eschatology of everyday life to occupy, to expand the visions of our horizon, and of our life. This means getting involved with people, which sometimes creates problems, but also blessings. Those who have, to them shall be given; and we can never know the blessings and the joy of fellowship with others, unless we are also ready to take the problems that go with it. Nor can we know the joys of occupying, of bringing things under the dominion that God requires of us, unless we do the work that it requires. Before you garden you break the ground, and you overcome all the problems that are there, especially if it is virgin soil and the gophers, and other varmints, have occupied it for generations. You occupy, and to him that hath shall be given, this is the eschatology of everyday life. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God we thank Thee that the world is of Thy ordination, and we confess indeed that as sinners we often wish that we could make the world over in our image; and we thank Thee Lord that this is not possible. Give us grace to accept the world as Thou hast made it, ourselves as Thou hast called us to serve Thee, and to rejoice in all Thy ways, and to occupy in terms of Thy calling. In Jesus name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson, yes?

[Audience member] Now I know what the word occupation means.

[Rushdoony] Yes, in the Biblical sense, that’s what it means.

Yes?

[Audience member] In your very {?} observation that justice ceases in state after, essentially, discipline ceased in the church; I’ve been interested in this for some time, I’ve been doing some research on the family history the last 3-4 years. I think 2-3 years ago I went through the session minutes of several of the old Presbyterian churches, and I noticed that essentially serious discipline ceased between about the years 1890, and 1915, and I understand that’s also the case in the southern Methodist and the Southern Baptist as well as the Presbyterian in the south. I noticed in the Presbyterian when the elders would discipline at first, if that person had any standing they would appeal it to Presbytery, and the Presbytery would always take up the person who had been disciplined and rebuke the session, and I assume that discouraged sessions at the turn of the century from any serious discipline. Do you have any thoughts on why that happened;

was it just the resurgence of Humanism, or what? That made discipline cease in mainline churches which were still evangelical and conservative at that time.

[Rushdoony] Yes, there’s a very good reason. It had begun to cease earlier in the north. But in the south, after the war, the churches by and large became antinomianism, and the southern Presbyterian Church and the general assembly of 1869, according to a monograph published not too many years ago, took a position against Biblical law; abandoned it much to the dismay of men like Dabney. As a result since they had taken a pietistic perspective, within a generation or so this had a practical effect on their government of their own people. So after about 1890, well actually 21 years later, it showed up in the way they governed themselves, in one generation. And since then it has gone a step further into unbelief in most those churches, following a pattern that had already been set in the North.

Yes?

[Audience member] You made reference early to Hal Lindsey. Could you address briefly his writings and similar type of people who’ve done this?

[Rushdoony] Yes, very hard for me to do so because I want to be charitable [laughter] and Hal Lindsey, in terms of scripture, is a false prophet because he has predicted the end of the world several times and it has not come to pass. He is an antinomian in that he has said there is no longer any law for us, and in his own life he has been antinomian, lawless. He has made a lot of money with this business of telling people the end of the world is just around the corner, I think his prediction now is 84 or 85, and it was 75 earlier, and then another date, so he’s still in the business of saying the end is very near.

Now, the gist of his preaching is this; be converted to my style of religion and you’ll be spared, you’ll be raptured out of this world before all the trouble comes.” Now to me that is escapism, not Christianity. Our Lord, in the parable we just studied, says “occupy till I come.” Now that calls for work, for struggle. And what Hal Lindsey is preaching is retreat, and withdrawal, it’s surrender of the world and it’s problems. I don’t see that as in any way relate to Biblical Christianity.

[Audience member] There are many others who continually focus in on this prophesy and how to interpret it, it’s a very pervasive, seems to me an electronic church thing, isn’t it?

[Rushdoony] Yes, now some of them I regard as quite a few cuts above Hal Lindsey, and I believe at this point they are in error and their emphasis on the immediate return, but with Hal Lindsey That’s been the sum total of his message. However there are some on television who are just as bad, and on radio, as Hal Lindsey in this. And I’m not at all surprised that with some of them, some of these people, there have been very serious problems connected with their personal lives. Because they have rejected the whole of scripture except one thing, the world is faced with serious problems in the days ahead, which most people believe, so they scare them with what’s coming, and Hal Lindsey is good at scaring people; and here’s the answer, now get ready. You’re going to get rapture out if it if you believe.

[Audience member] I wonder when this trial and tribulation comes into their lives, it is always identified as Satan in conflict with the direction or purpose they feel God has led them, and that is only Satan trying to overcome.

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Audience member] And this is a consistent position, or {?}

[Rushdoony] They turn Satan into another God. With some of them he is really more powerful than God. But the Bible tells us that Satan is a creature, a creature can have only a local appearance and existents. In other words, I cannot be here in the Los Angeles and San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington D.C. all at one in the same time, I can only be at one place at a time. Now that limits me, doesn’t it? Whereas God is omnipresent. Well Satan can only have a local appearance, because he’s a creature. But to hear these people talk he is a powerful person like God who is omnipresent, and that’s nonsense. And once you recognize Satan as a creature with a purely local appearance, you’ve limited his power.

Are you familiar with the poetry or John Donne the seventh

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes, he has a very astute line in one of his holy sonnets when he speaks of tempting Satan to tempt us. A lot of people find Satan a very convenient peg on which to hang their own bent, and their own desires. As Flip Wilson would say “the devil made me do it.” Marvelous, it’s not my fault, the devil made me do it. Exactly what Adam and Eve said, Adam said “Lord, it’s not my fault, the woman Thou gavest to be with me, she did give it and I did eat.” So “I’m not to blame, you and that woman.” Now this is how the devil is used by many people today, a lot of church people and a lot of preachers, as though it’s all the devil’s fault. Not that I got myself into this mess, oh how nice it is to blame the devil, then I don’t have to take the responsibility.

[Audience member] The {?} trouble with what suggested, the charitable, aspect of some of it, is it valid to assume that within the overall programming there, that a very valid and important service being rendered through these…I find it very difficult to gain substantive knowledge, almost to any of them.

[Rushdoony] Yes, I would agree.

[Audience member] I almost say totally. They have the same cute stories to tell about “my last trip to Kenya” and these niceties and pleasantries, and zinyets,{?} the scholarship, the learning, the wisdom, is non-existent.

[Rushdoony] Yes. I’m afraid a lot of them are racketeers. Some of them towards whom I feel more charitable are just indulging in pious gush, there really is no content; and that is tragic because never in world history have we had a crisis comparable to what we have today, and never has there been a greater need for content in preaching.

[Audience member] Or greater opportunity.

[Rushdoony] Exactly.

[Audience member] Or teaching

[Rushdoony] Yes exactly, exactly.

[Audience member] Or enlightenment.

[Rushdoony] Well, scripture tells us judgment begins at the house of God. It tells us that those to whom much has been given, much shall be acquired. So anyone who has the ear of a million people or radio or on television, more is going to be required of him by God. So they had better tremble if they’re not doing so now, because I do believe God is going to judge them and I’m content to leave them in God’s hand because I know that they have a day of reckoning coming, some of those people.

[Audience member] Would you say that they are filling any real need in the eyes and hearts of people, and are they indeed performing a meaningful service in God’s work.

[Rushdoony] No, most of them are not. I think they are performing a disservice, a disservice. And many people are going to churches of that kind purely for the emotional kick. Some years ago there was a city-wide revival in a city where I was a pastor, and I happened to be at the time the president of the council of churches, local ministerial associations and council; and a number of the churches, enough of them to form a majority, voted to bring in this prominent evangelist of the day, this was over twenty years ago, about twenty-five years ago. And he was very able speaker, I will say that, better than most of those around now, but I was so ashamed of the whole thing, and of the financial aspect of it, that I told the treasurer, “let’s not publish it, I’m embarrassed.” And I’m afraid this is all too true today.

Now I know that there are some who are very responsible, a handful of them, but I also found afterwards that all those who had supposedly been converted at this huge revival at the civic auditorium, all of them were people, and I had a thorough check made of every name on the list because I was interested, this was my first experience with something of this sort, were people who were repeaters. Any church that had a revival they’d go there and go forward. Then they’d go to another church with a big revival meeting, it has a continual emotional jag. And I tried calling on a number of them and talking with them, and I found there were serious moral problems there, and so it was an emotional kick and a substitute for any real Bible study and growth.

Well our time is over now, so let us conclude with prayer.

Our Lord and our God we thank Thee that Thou art on the throne, and it is Thy will that shall prevail. Thou hast commanded us to occupy and Thou wilt in Thine own way, and in Thine own good time raise up the men with a sense of calling, with an occupation, that shall bring everything into captivity to Jesus Christ our Lord. Our God we thank Thee, in Jesus name amen.