The Irrelevance of Rousas John Rushdoony

This is a rambling rant provoked by a post in a Facebook group called

The Level-Headed Christian Reconstructionist:


 

If the "church" in its pedagogical aspect is to be a "functional" and not a "terminal" institution, it logically follows that one day it will no longer be needed in its pedagogical aspect in training the new believer in the functions performed by the royal priesthood. This is disciple making in its end use.

In other words, as disciples are made by the "church" they go out and make disciples as the "church".

What is the two-fold mission of the Great Commission? Baptizing and teaching others to obey all God has commanded.

If you are discipled properly by mature believers in the faith (elders) through the word of God, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, then you are to do the same with others.

Now go make disciples of the nations!

"The training of such mature men is the function of the church. The purpose of the church should not be to bring men into subjection to the church, but rather to train them into a royal priesthood capable of bringing the world into subjection to Christ the King. The church is the recruiting station, the training field, and the armory for Christ's army of royal priests. It is a functional, not a terminal, institution. The church has by and large paid lip service to the priesthood of all believers, because it's hierarchy has distrusted the implications of the doctrine, and because it has seen the church as an end in itself, not as an instrument."
-R.J. Rushdoony
(The Institutes of Biblical Law pg. 764)

I don't have time to edit this response. It's all over the place as it stands.

The Rush quote is internally self-contradictory because it oscillates between description and prescription.

"The training of such mature men is the function of the church."
Clearly false as description.

"The purpose of the church should not be to bring men into subjection to the church, but rather to train them into a royal priesthood capable of bringing the world into subjection to Christ the King. "
As a prescription, it might be RJR's opinion. I don't think he would say that "the church" has a monopoly on such training.

"The church is the recruiting station, the training field, and the armory for Christ's army of royal priests. "
Again, false as a description.

"It is a functional, not a terminal, institution."
It is? No, it's not.

" The church has by and large paid lip service to the priesthood of all believers, because it's hierarchy has distrusted the implications of the doctrine, and because it has seen the church as an end in itself, not as an instrument."
Accurate description.

I think Rushdoony does this often. He doesn't want to offend clergymen (too much), so he speaks of the church with optimism. There's probably a literary term for this, but I don't know what the term is. Imagine a king acting like an evil repressive dictator. A close advisor, favoring smaller government, not wanting to be punished, but hoping to moderate the king's policies, says to the king, "As a great statesman, the king knows the importance of building consensus among his subjects." Totally false as description, it expresses the wish or hope of the advisor that persuasion would supplant coercion.

Rushdoony says "The church is the recruiting station...." I want to run with the word "recruitment." I want to take it farther than Rushdoony was willing to take it.

There are two other words that could be used in place of "recruiting":

I believe Abraham used both. Abraham is our model of government, replacing both "Church" and "State."

In my opinion, the logic of the writings of R.J. Rushdoony leads to the need to abolish the institutions of church and state. ("Abolish" is too strong, active, and violent a word. Better to say that Christian Reconstruction would strengthen the Family, and more and more social functions would be exercised by the Family through businesses, charities, and voluntary associations, diminishing the size and reach of the State, as well as the institutional church, to the point where we could simply say to these institutions, "Good riddance!" and not worry about trying to maintain their continued existence in any purely formal way.)

Taken consistently, Rushdoony's brand of "Christian Reconstruction" leads to "Patriarchy," a state-less, church-less family-centered society. I think Gary North would agree, as he wrote in his booklet (critical of Rushdoony and his consistent followers), Baptized Patriarchalism. According to North, this view of Christian Reconstruction "argues that the family, not the institutional church, is designed by God to be the central institution in Christian society." (Both North and Rushdoony agree that "The State" should not be the central institution in a Christian society. But then they disagree on church vs. family. The "Tyler" brand of Christian Reconstruction sees the institutional church as the central institution in society. The Vallecito brand of Christian Reconstruction does not; it favors the Family, but also hasn't reached a level of [what I would call] epistemological self-consciousness to truly champion the kind of Patriarchy that worries North. Not internal family totalitarianism, or clan-archy, but strong families, businesses, and charities having the external effect of crowding out and ultimately eliminating the institutions of church and state. Both of those institutions, I believe, are hold-overs from human rebellion in the Old Covenant. The Family is pre-fall.)

(Better than "Patriarchy," I like the term "Patriagora," from the Greek patria, "family," and agora, "market." I recognize that my term is unmarketable.)

But Rushdoony was unable to accept this logic during his lifetime. He never came out to argue for the complete abolition of either church or state.

In many ways, Rushdoony was a product of his times. And before. His reaction to the "anarcho-capitalism" of Murray Rothbard was similar to the reaction of Benjamin Rush to the "self-government" ideas of Thomas Jefferson:

Never before had I heard the authority of kings called in question. I had been taught to consider them nearly as essential to political order as the sun is to the order of our solar system.

Similarly, Rushdoony was, as a product of 19th- and early 20th-century thinking, unable to call for the complete repudiation of the institutional church. The contents of The Institutes of Biblical Law were delivered in a chapel, surrounded by the trappings of a typical sermon-centered Protestant church "worship service" (invocation, prayer, hymns, benediction, etc.) but the meetings were outside of any institutional church denomination, and were criticized by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, precisely because the more epistemologically self-conscious churchmen sensed where this was going.

New Covenant Christians are Theonomic Sons of Abraham

New Covenant Christians are to be sons of Abraham, and heirs of the promise God made to Abraham.[1]

Abraham was a Theonomist.[2]

The Prophets said that New Covenant sons of Abraham would have the Torah written on their hearts.[3]

Jesus did not come to abolish the Torah and the Prophets.[4]

Therefore the true Christian, son of Abraham, observes the Torah and teaches others to observe it.

Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:19

New Covenant, Same Gospel

The word "Gospel" means "good news." The Apostle Paul warned about those who brought "another gospel" (2 Corinthians 11:4; Galatians 1:6-7). The issue in Galatia was whether non-Israelites were oblgated to observe Old Testament ceremonial laws, and perhaps also Jewish rabbinic law (some of which laws were discussed in Mark 7: "the tradition of the elders").

N.T. Wright and other proponents of the "New Perspective" on the Apostle Paul have brought to our attention the importance of the inclusion of non-Israelites into the Household of Faith, and the destruction of the temple system in A.D. 70.

The "good news" is that non-Israelites can become sons of Abraham.
The "good news" is that these people will obey the Torah.
The "good news" is that this obedience will be blessed by God.
The "good news" is that this "blessing" includes freedom from archists.
The "good news" is that this freedom results in the world-wide restoration of Edenic conditions.
This is "good news" indeed!

The institutional church will say we're bringing "another gospel."

Abraham was a businessman. He was a "cattle baron." Genesis 13:2 says "Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold." As I pointed out here (Pierre Joseph Proudhon: Agrarian Jurisprudence) F. Willeson, The Yalid in Hebrew Society, 12 STUDIA THEOLOGICA 192-210 (1958) estimates that Abram's household in Genesis 14:14 numbered near 12,000 people.

Abraham's home-business was huge. Out of more than 18 million businesses in the United States, less than 5,000 (five thousand) have more than 4,999 employees, representing less than .03% of all businesses. A third of all businesses have only one employee, and more than another third have less than 5 employees.

This is a staggering gap. The overwhelming majority of all businesses are "small businesses." I suspect that most of the large businesses -- the "one percent" -- are "crony" businesses. "Crony capitalism" depends on government favors and subsidies to gain an advantage over competitors.

Abraham received no subsidies or monopoly privileges from any government. He provided "government" to his employees, by telling them when and how to work in his economy (home-business) (the word "economy" comes from two Greek words, oikos, "home," and nomos, "law" or management).

Abraham's home-business was also a "mega-church."
The size and number of churches parallels businesses in some ways. According to Michael Bell, half the churches in the United States have less than 75 people. And for most of these churches, those numbers never change. They had 75 people 100 years ago. They had 75 people 50 years ago. They have 75 people today, and they will have 75 people in 50 years -- unless the institutional church goes extinct before then. Shouldn't this stagnation be considered totally dysfunctional? But conservatives view with some positive nostalgia the picture of the typical "church." Google the word "church" and click "images" at the top. You will see lots of photos of church buildings which are more than 100 years old. There are lots of these buildings, and they represent not "faith, family, and patriotism," but multi-generational stagnation and growing cultural acceptance of homosexuality. "Dysfunctional" is the word, but if you envision the abolition of this institution (and replacement by the Abraham model), you are considered a nutty heretic. These images are iconic symbols of conservatism. Who wants a world without them? Yet to ask that question is to ask "Who wants Christians exercising dominion? Who wants a world under God's Law?" Better to keep our traditional churches than to unleash consistent Christian Reconstructionism.

Although half of the church buildings are small, half of all the pew-sitters are in the top 10% of the buildings -- the largest churches. The small churches seem to be more doctrinally-oriented (and probably split off another church over doctrine) while the larger churches are more entertainment-oriented social clubs. Neither extreme is a force for genuine Christian Reconstruction.

The sad fact is, "churches" throughout history have very seldom been dominion recruiters or boot camps. During the medieval era, the primary purpose of "churches" was performing "the sacrifice of the Mass." Under the influence of Greco-Roman thinking, the "magisterial reformers" substituted the sermon for the Mass (more than the Lutherans. who remained ersatz Roman Catholic; ditto the Anglicans), and thereby substituted monologue for the dialogue found in the New Testament "house to house" gatherings.

Dominion Business: No Separation of "Church" and "State"

Abraham administered the "sacraments" to his employees: he circumcised them. (Let that sink in. Today's employees complain about peeing in a cup for drug tests.) (When was the last time you read a sentence containing the words "sacraments" and "employees?") The institutional church frowns on the "sacraments" being administered in home churches by unordained laymen. What if churches were replaced not by "home churches," but by businesses? What if the State's courts were replaced by businesses? (Melchizedek the Priest-King did not frown on Abraham the businessman-priest-king. In the New Covenant, we are members of a kingly priesthood and a sanctified state [1 Peter 2:9], thus violating every side of the "separation of church and state." All are priests and kings [Revelation 1:6; 5:10], and yet nobody is a "priest" [in the Roman Catholic sense of the word] and nobody is an archist ["king"] over others. )

Every day of the week -- not just on Sunday (church) -- Abraham provided all the benefits of church and state.

Today's families have no vision of being a patriarch like Abraham. They leave greatness to the institutions of church and state. Both those institutions tell families that families cannot do what needs to be done to hold society together.

I described Abraham's use of hospitality and employment (what Rushdoony described above as "recruitment") in one of my "95 Theses on Patriarchy":

Thesis 23: Evangelism In The Old Covenant

Abram expanded his household through hospitality, evangelism and domestic apprenticeship.[1] Evangelism expands the dominion of Patriarchy. Biblical evangelism is Patriarchy (#71, #75). The “Gospel” is the “good news” that Christ is King and is going to turn back the curse and bless all nations. The Scripture preached this good news (“Gospel”) to Abraham,[2] saying that God would build and bless all the Families of the earth[3] through his Seed.[4] The Gospel promise to Abraham is being fulfilled in Christ and His Church.[5]

Notes
1. Genesis 12:5, #20
2. Galatians 3:8
3. Genesis 12:3; 18:18-19.
4. Galatians 3:16; #36
5. Acts 13:32-37; 3:25-26; #69

References
"Patriarchy" is defined on this blog as a family-centered society with no "church and no "state." Our definition would therefore include something that might be called a "matriarchal" society, if that family structure is the sole social structure. Our word is derived from patria, family, not pater, father. It's a separate, historical argument as to whether there is any such thing as a "matriarchal" society. We're not arguing for or against a particular relationship between husband and wife (for the most part); we're arguing against non-familial institutions.

On "blessing":
• The Meaning of "Blessing"
• Christmas: A Celebration of Paradise
• Deuteronomy 28 - God's Blessings upon Obedience

On hospitality, evangelism and domestic apprenticeship:
• James B. Jordan: "God's Hospitality and Holistic Evangelism"
cf.: Sacred spaces and places
• Gary North: "Family Authority vs. Protestant Sacerdotalism"

• Abraham and Government.
• Government without the State
• Public Service
• www.Nagocracy.com

The take-home point here is that "New Testament Christians" should not be less evangelistic and less hospitable than Abraham, and there is more power from the Holy Spirit under the New Covenant to bring order to society through families and the businesses and associations created by families.

"The Gospel" is the "Good News" that all the earth would be "blessed."

Galatians 3:8

8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.”

Abraham knew -- and sons of Abraham know -- that The Law and the Prophets consistently proclaim that "blessings" are the result of obedience to God's Law.[5]

For Further Reading:

A radical "postmillennialist" Gospel includes non-Israelites in a way quite different from modern-day Jews, who are very exclusive, drawing inward, rather than inclusive, and expanding outward.


James Jordan (The Future of Israel Re-examined) fleshes this out:

-------
Most Christians think of the Jews as a race of people descended from Abraham. In this section of this essay I want to call this assumption into question, by looking at the history of Israel in the Old Testament. When God called Abraham and made him a priest to the gentile nations, He commanded him to use the sign of circumcision to mark out the Hewbrews from the other nations. Abraham's household at this time included at least 318 fighting men (Gen. 14:14), as well as their wives and children, possibly many more servants. All of these men were circumcised. We see these servants mentioned in the book of Genesis several times (Gen.26:19ff.; 32:16), and when Jacob went down to sojourn in Egypt, so many people went with him that he had to be given the whole land of Goshen to dwell in. Genesis 46 provides a list of only 70 actual blood descendants of Abraham who went into Egypt. Thus, from the very beginning, the Israelites were defined by covenant, not by blood and race.

The same was true for each of the tribes within Israel. A Levite was not necessarily a blood descendant of Levi, but more likely was a descendant of one of the patriarchs' servants who was a part of Levi's company. Only a small percentage of Levites would actually have been descendants of Levi.

These several thousand people became over two million by the time of the Exodus 215 years later. Only a small percentage of the people who came out of Egypt had any racial connection with Abraham. Moreover, added to the company of Israel at this time was a vast mixed multitude, many of whom became circumcised members of the nation, and therefore members of individual tribes as well.

There was another admixture of converts in the time of David and Solomon. Think of Uriah the Hittite, for example. Then again, the book of Esther tells us that during and after the Exile many more gentiles became Jews (Esth. 8:17).

What this means is that very few Jews at the time of Christ had any of Abraham's blood in them. They were a nation formed by covenant, not a race formed by blood. To be sure, Jesus Himself was a true blood descendant of Abraham, and His genealogy is important for theological reasons, but few other Jews could trace their genealogy to Abraham. What I seek to establish by this survey is this: With the passing away of the Old Covenant, there is no longer any such thing as a Jew in the Biblical sense, unless by "True Jews" we mean Christians. There is no covenant, and therefore there is no nation, no "race."
-------

At the heart of God's covenant is adoption and hospitality. Ideally, Israel was inclusive and world-embracing. 

Today, Jews are exclusive.

December 3, 2016 at 8:33 PM 
Abraham's home business was not formed by blood, but by covenant. You don't get circumcised just to get a job, unless you buy into the dominion vision of the owner.

What matters is not genetics. Jesus told the Jews they must be "born again." Paul told the Gentiles they could be born again as sons of Abraham.


Micah 4
But in the latter days it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains; and it shall be exalted above the hills, and peoples shall flow to it.
2 And many nations shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways, and we may walk in His paths. For the law shall go forth out of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

Psalm 87
2 The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
3 Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God! Selah
4 “I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know Me; behold, Philistia and Tyre, with Ethiopia: ‘This man was born there.’”
5 And of Zion it shall be said, “This and that man were born in her; and the Highest Himself shall establish her.”
6 The Lord shall count, when He writeth up the people, that this man was born there. Selah

December 3, 2016 at 8:33 PM 
 

Isaiah 19:18-25

18 In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear by the Lord of hosts; one will be called the City of Destruction.

19 In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border. 20 And it will be for a sign and for a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the Lord because of the oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Mighty One, and He will deliver them. 21 Then the Lord will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day, and will make sacrifice and offering; yes, they will make a vow to the Lord and perform it. 22 And the Lord will strike Egypt, He will strike and heal it; they will return to the Lord, and He will be entreated by them and heal them.

23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians.

24 In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria—a blessing in the midst of the land, 25 whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”

 

[1]

Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.
Galatians 3:7

So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.
Galatians 3:9

. . . that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Galatians 3:14

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. {29} And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Galatians 3:28-29

Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.
Galatians 4:28

For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
Romans 4:16

Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
Romans 4:13

That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.
Romans 9:8

. . . having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,
1 Peter 1:23

And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
Galatians 6:16

[return]

[2] What did Abraham think about God's "Torah?" God says of Abraham:

And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;
Because that Abraham obeyed My Voice, and kept My Charge, My Commandments, My Statutes, and My Torah.
Genesis 26:4-5

Genesis 18:17-19
And the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD , to do righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.”

[return]

[3]

[return]

[4]

Matthew 5:17-20

  1. Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
  2. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
  3. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
  4. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

[return]

[5]  Whole chapters of the Bible are dedicated to describing promises of extravagant blessings to the faithful. Here's one from Leviticus:

{26:3} If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them,
{4} then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
{5} Your threshing shall last till the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last till the time of sowing; you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
{6} I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none will make you afraid; I will rid the land of evil beasts, and the sword will not go through your land.
{7} You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you.
{8} Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.
{9} 'For I will look on you favorably and make you fruitful, multiply you and confirm My covenant with you.
{10} You shall eat the old harvest, and clear out the old because of the new.
{11} I will set My tabernacle among you, and My soul shall not abhor you.
{12} I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.
{13} I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves; I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you walk upright.

And more from Deuteronomy:

{28:1} "Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth.
{2} "And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God:
{3} "Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.
{4} "Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
{5} "Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
{6} "Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
{7} "The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.
{8} "The LORD will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
{9} "The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways.
{10} "Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you.
{11} "And the LORD will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you.
{12} "The LORD will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.
{13} "And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them.
{14} "So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Deuteronomy 28 is a long chapter. It is also an unfamiliar chapter to most "christians," because they are infected with "neo-platonism," a pagan philosophy which holds that the material world is inferior to the world of thought and ideas. But the Bible says that the material world was created by God. Therefore whole-Bible Christians work to have a healthy respect for the creation and its bounty.

Here's how I sum up the major blessings of Deuteronomy 28:

1. "Set thee on high above all peoples of the earth."
2. "Blessed in the city" (v. 3)
3. "Blessed in the fields" (v. 3)
4. "Blessed children" (v. 4)
5. "Blessed crops" (v. 4)
6. "Blessed livestock" (v. 4)
7. "Blessed graineries" (v. 5)
8. "Blessed bakeries" (v. 5)
9. Successful business (v. 6)
10. Peaceful International relations (v. 7)
11. Abundance in the barns (v. 8)
12. Success in every activity (v. 8)
13. Enemies at peace with us (v. 10)
14. Abundant goods (v. 11)
15. Abundant children (v. 11)
16. Abundant cattle (v. 11)
17. Lots to eat (v. 11)
18. "His good treasure" (v. 12)
19. Adequate rain (v. 12)
20. Business success (v. 12)
21. Debts paid (v. 12)
22. Investments (v. 12)
23. Respect (v. 13)

And of course, verses 15-68 give the opposite, and we may deduce that "none of these" curses will come upon the saved (Exodus 15:26).

 

Blessings: Freedom from Archists

In Mark 10:42-45, Jesus instructs His disciples not to be like "the kings of the gentiles," who love to be "archists." Christians are to be servants instead of archists.

www.HowToBecomeAChristianAnarchist.com 

Archists are those who believe they have the right to impose their own will on others using force or threats of violence. Non-Archists do not believe that Christianity is to be spread by the sword. "The Sword" in Scripture is a metaphor for the State, particularly its armies, and/or the SWAT teams of the bureaucracies, or (as the Declaration of Independence describes them) "a multitude of New Offices, and ... swarms of Officers." If we will simply obey the Commands of Christ, God will remove all archists from our society. See Leviticus 26

3 ‘If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them,
4 then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
5 Your threshing shall last till the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last till the time of sowing;
you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
6 I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none will make you afraid;
I will rid the land of evil beasts,
and the sword will not go through your land.
In the Bible, "Egypt" epitomizes the divinized State.
Slavemasters are "archists."
13 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves;
I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you walk upright.
 
14 ‘But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments,
15 and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant,
16 I also will do this to you:
I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart.
And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
17 I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies.
Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you.
18 ‘And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.
 
25 And I will bring a sword against you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant;
when you are gathered together within your cities I will send pestilence among you;
and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
26 When I have cut off your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall bring back your bread by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.
 
32 I will bring the land to desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it.
33 I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you;
your land shall be desolate and your cities waste.
36 ‘And as for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies;
the sound of a shaken leaf shall cause them to flee;
they shall flee as though fleeing from a sword, and they shall fall when no one pursues.
37 They shall stumble over one another, as it were before a sword, when no one pursues;
and you shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
38 You shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
39 And those of you who are left shall waste away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands;
also in their fathers’ iniquities, which are with them, they shall waste away.
40 ‘But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me,
41 and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies;
if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt—
42 then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember;
I will remember the land.
43 The land also shall be left empty by them, and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them;
they will accept their guilt, because they despised My judgments and because their soul abhorred My statutes.
44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, nor shall I abhor them, to utterly destroy them and break My covenant with them;
for I am the Lord their God.
45 But for their sake I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God:
I am the Lord.’”
46 These are the statutes and judgments and laws which the Lord made between Himself and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.

The "Good News" -- Restoration of Edenic Conditions For All Nations

Some quotes from David Chilton. Chilton and I used to sit at a table with Rushdoony, who tutored us through Van Til. Good times.

Paradise Restored

Ultimately, Biblical salvation turns back the Curse, brings back Edenic conditions, repairs personal and social relationships, and blesses the earth in every area. The whole earth will be saved, and remade into the Garden of God. "For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea" (Isa. 11:9).

In a very real sense, therefore (and progressively as the Gospel conquers the world), God's people have always lived in "the Garden." For example, the land of Egypt is described in Genesis 13:10 as being "like the Garden of the LORD"—and when the covenant people went there to live, they were given the area of Goshen, which was the best in all Egypt (Gen. 45:18; 47:5-6, 11, 27). In this Edenic location they were fruitful and multiplied (Ex. 1: 7)—the same expression as in God's original command to Adam and Eve in the Garden! The Promised Land also, as we would expect, was a land in which much of the Curse had been reversed: it was "like the Garden of Eden" (Joel 2:3), and therefore "flowing with milk and honey" (Ex. 3:8).

As we shall see in the following pages, the restoration of Eden is an essential aspect of the salvation that Christ provides. When the Old Testament foretold the coming of the Christ and the blessings He would bring, they often spoke in the language of Eden-restoration. Isaiah wrote: "Indeed, the LORD will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places. And her wilderness He will make like Eden, and her desert like the Garden of the LORD, joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and sound of a melody" (Isa. 51:3). And Ezekiel, many years later, prophesied:

Thus says the Lord GOD, "On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places will be rebuilt. And the desolate land will be cultivated instead of being a desolation in the sight of all who passed by. And they will say, 'This desolate land has become like the Garden of Eden; and the waste, desolate, and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited.' Then the nations that are left round about you will know that I, the LORD, have rebuilt the ruined places and planted that which was desolate; I, the LORD, have spoken and will do it (Ezek. 36:33-36).

But there is much more in these prophecies (and others) regarding the restoration of Eden than we might notice at first glance. Indeed, there are many, many passages of Scripture which speak in terms of the Edenic patterns which do not mention Eden by name. The Paradise Theme runs throughout the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation; but in order to recognize it we must first familiarize ourselves with what God's Word says about the original Garden itself. God has gone to the trouble to tell us some very specific information about the Garden, and the rest of Scripture is built on this foundation, referring back to it regularly. Note well: this study is not merely a collection of trivia, of "strange and interesting facts about the Bible" (e.g., the sort of irrelevant data that is often to be found in the "encyclopedia" sections of big family Bibles). It is, I repeat, a major Biblical theme, dramatically illuminating the message of the Book of Revelation—and, by the way, helping us to understand the message of the Bible as a whole. 

Israel as Priest to the Nations (Gentiles)

Edenic symbolism was also in the feasts of Israel, as they celebrated the bounty of God's provision and enjoyed the fullness of life and prosperity under the blessings of the covenant. This is particularly true of the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths (also called "Ingathering," in Ex. 23:16). In this feast they were required to leave their homes and live for seven days in little "tabernacles," or booths, made entirely from "the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook" (Lev. 23:40). Israel usually dwelled in walled cities, as a protection against their enemies; yet, at the very time of prosperity (the end of harvest)—when attack would seem most likely—God ordered them to leave the security of their homes and journey to Jerusalem, to live in unprotected booths made of branches, palm fronds, and fruit! God promised, however, that He would keep the heathen from attacking during the festivals (Ex. 34:23-24), and Israel had to trust in His strength.

The feast was, obviously, a reminder of life in Eden, when walled cities were unnecessary; and it looked forward to the day when the world would be turned into Eden, and the nations would beat their swords into plowshares (Mic. 4:3). For this reason they were also commanded to sacrifice 70 bullocks during the feast (Num. 29:12-38). Why 70? Because the number of the original nations of the earth was 70 (they are listed in Gen. 10), and the feast celebrated the ingathering of all nations into God's Kingdom; thus atonement was made for all.

It is important to remember that the Jews did not keep this feast—in fact, they forgot it was even in the Bible—until their return from captivity under Ezra and Nehemiah (Neh. 8:13-18). During this period of renewal and restoration, God enlightened the minds of the prophets to understand the significance of this feast as an acted-out prophecy of the conversion of all nations to the true faith. On the last day of the feast (Hag. 2:1), God spoke through Haggai: "'I will shake all the nations; and they will come with the wealth of all nations; and I will fill this House [the Temple] with glory…. The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,' declares the LORD of hosts" (Hag. 2:7-8). About this same time, Zechariah prophesied about the meaning of the feast in terms of the conversion of all nations and the sanctification of every area of life (Zech. 14:16-21). And hundreds of years later, during the celebration of the same feast, Christ Himself declared its meaning: the outpouring of the Spirit upon the restored believer, so that the Church becomes a means of restoration to the entire world (Jn. 7:37-39; cf. Ezek. 47:1-12).

Israel was to be the means of bringing the blessings of the Garden of Eden to the world: Scripture goes out of its way to portray this symbolically when it tells us (twice: Ex. 15:27; Num. 33:9) of Israel camping at Elim, where there were 12 wells of water (the 12 tribes of Israel) and 70 palm trees (the 70 nations of the world). God thus organized Israel as a small-scale model of the world, giving it 70 elders (Ex. 24:1); and Jesus followed this pattern by sending out 70 disciples (Lk. 10:1). God's people are a nation of priests (Ex. 19:6; 1 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 1:6), chosen to bring the light of the Gospel into a world darkened by sin and the Curse. Increasingly, the Hope expressed in the Feast of Tabernacles will be realized, as the whole earth becomes a Garden (Isa. 11:9; Dan. 2:35); as the world is filled with blessing and security, and there is no longer any need for walled cities (Lev. 23:3-6; Isa. 65:17-25; Ezek. 34:25-29). The Garden of Eden, the Mountain of the Lord, will be restored in history, before the Second Coming, by the power of the Gospel; and the desert will rejoice, and blossom as the rose (Isa. 35:1).

The "walled city" is the Polis. The New Jerusalem repudiates the Polis and its walls. The gates to the City of God are always open (Revelation 21:25).

More on The City of God.

Nobody has been more influential in my life than R.J. Rushdoony. Nobody has been more relevant.