Pocket College

Professor: Rushdoony Dr. R.J.R.

Subject: Systematic Theology

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 19 of 19

Track: #19

Year:

Dictation Name: 19 Authority and Life

[Rushdoony] Let us worship God. Thus saith the Lord, ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart. Jesus said blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God we come into Thy presence hungering and thirsting after righteousness, after Thy justice. Oh lord the heathen rage and take council together against Thee, and they seek to destroy Thy kingdom and Thy saints. We come to Thee oh Lord beseeching Thee to work in our time, in our midst, in and through us, to accomplish Thy purpose, to bring forth Thy justice, and to make known Thy so great salvation. Bless us this day by Thy word and by Thy Spirit, that day by day we may move in Thee and to Thy purpose, to do Thy will oh Lord. In Jesus name, amen.

Our scripture this morning is from the Psalms, the first Psalm. Our subject authority and life, authority and life, Psalm one.

“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

6 For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.” 

Psalm one is to little appreciated in our antinomian age. It gives the temper to all the Psalms, and it sets forth a fundamental fact, namely that submission to God’s authority means life, while rejection of God and His law means death. Its promises are very clear, that anyone whose delight is in the law of the Lord who meditates in the law day and night is going to be like a tree planted in rivers of water that bringeth forth His fruit in a season. We are promised that if this fits us whatsoever we do shall prosper. Well people don’t like things that plain. Today to many things are programmed for defeat, they go through the scriptures to find all the texts that deal with defeat, and it’s true that there is warfare with this world, that the world is at war against God and therefore will be at war against all who are Godly. But the fact is, it is an uneven war. The forces of ungodliness, of rebellion, are not going to triumph. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. But people prefer to turn the moral universe upside down and are unwilling to say that God has said “whatsoever he (the Godly man) who delights in the law of the Lord shall do, shall prosper.

Well this Psalm makes known how serious our predicament is today. Some commentaries which profess to believe the Bible from cover to cover have actually held that this Psalm gives, and I quote “a distorted statement of the nature of true happiness.” Now that’s rebellion against God, to despise His word. Because the law is praised in this Psalm, hence many commentators insist this Psalm is alien to the Spirit of the New Testament.

Professor: Rushdoony Dr. R.J.R.

Subject: Systematic Theology

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 18 of 19

Track: #18

Year:

Dictation Name: 18 The Power to Kill

[Rushdoony] Let us worship God. Serve the Lord with gladness, come before His presence with singing, enter into His gates with Thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him and bless His name, for the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting and His truth endureth to all generations. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God unto whom all honor and glory belongeth we come into Thy presence rejoicing in Thy mercies past, present, and future. We thank Thee that we live and move and have our being in Thee and that Thou art our God, and Thou who hast given Thine only begotten Son to die for us will do yet more and care for us. Give us grace therefore so to walk day by day that in confidence in Thy mercies we may ever be faithful, ever zealous in Thy service, ever joyful in Thy care. Bless us to this end, in Jesus name amen.

Our scripture is in Deuteronomy the thirty-second chapter, the twenty-ninth verse; our subject The Power to Kill. Deuteronomy 32:39.

“39 See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.”

This statement is one which we encounter in several forms in scripture. In Isaiah 45:18 God declares there is no God with me, I am the Lord and there is none else. Again in the 21st verse of the same chapter “there is no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior. There is none beside me.” God declares emphatically that He only is God; that the issues of life and death are ultimately and essentially in His hands. Now this is a necessary emphasis because original sin is mans desire to be His own God, to say “my will be done, not God’s.” Humanism of course is the logical development of this presupposition. The pagan as well as the modern state represent the institutionalization of mans desire to be His own God. Man cannot create life, he has dreamed about this more than once and today of course we have regularly announcements of the scientists have taken a major step towards the creation of life. And all these claims are exaggerations and are fallacious. 

Man has not been able to create life. He dreams of it because it is his way of playing God. But what he can do is the other half of the equation, to kill, and so he plays God by killing. The more humanistic a state the more murderous it is. From the French Revolution on the state has become an agency of mass murder. What George Orwell in 1984 described was the reality of the nature of the modern state, he simply carried it to its logical world-wide implications. In 1984 the vision is ultimately of a boot stamping on a human face forever. Man playing God in the only way he can do it, murderously. We are told by more than a few people who have escaped from the Soviet Union of the very great delight of torturers in torturing, in playing God. In one account after another we have horrifying illustrations of this exercise of power.

As the Earl of Gloucester says in King Lear “as flies to wanton boys are we to the gods, they kill us for their sport” now this is fallen man’s common idea of divine power. God uses power to enjoy its exercise over helpless creatures. Isabella in Measure for Measure said of man’s dream of power “could great men thunder as Jove himself does, Jove would never be quiet. For every pelting petty officer would use his heaven for thunder. Nothing but thunder,

Professor: Rushdoony Dr. R.J.R.

Subject: Systematic Theology

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 17 of 19

Track: #17

Year:

Dictation Name: 17 Authority, Justice, and Men

[Rushdoony] Thus saith the Lord “Ye shall seek Me and find Me when Ye shall search for me with all your hearts.” Jesus said “blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God whose grace and mercy we’ve all been made rich. We give thanks unto Thee for the joy and happiness of our lives, for the blessings with which Thou dost daily surround us. For the land of our birth, for the homes in which we live, and for our fellowship one with another. Make us ever mindful how rich we are in Thee. Give us grateful hearts that we might praise Thee with all our heart, mind, and being and serve Thee with gladness and thanksgiving. Make us ever mindful of all that Thou hast given to us, chiefly Jesus Christ Thy Son our Savior, who came to be made sin for us, destroyed the power of sin and death, and now sitteth at Thy right hand ever to intercede for us. Therefore we praise Thee, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In Jesus name, amen.

Our scripture this morning is from Deuteronomy 17 verses 8-13, and our subject Authority, Justice, and men, Deuteronomy 17 beginning with the eighth verse.

“8 If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose; 9 And thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and enquire; and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment: 10 And thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the Lord shall choose shall shew thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee: 11 According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee, to the right hand, nor to the left. 12 And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel. 13 And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.” 

God in His law stresses repeatedly the untrustworthiness of men. As a result in the courts of law according to scripture, which has set a pattern for many nations, corroboration of evidence was necessary for conviction. According to Deuteronomy 17:6-7 there had to be two or more witnesses, this law is very strongly stressed, more than once, as witness in Numbers 34:30 and in Deuteronomy 19:5 it is made clear that it applies in any case for any crime. The New Testament also stresses this requirement of corroboration. In cases Ecclesiastical as well as civil and criminal, as witness Matthew 18:16, John 8:17, II Corinthians 13:1, I Timothy 5:19, and Hebrews 10:28. In other words the Bible makes clear that no man, however important, however great his position and authority in the realm, can convict anyone by his testimony alone. 

This distrust of authority goes through the law. In our text the law deals with appeals in courts. First these appeals were up to Moses, later to the governing judge, and then to the king. In Exodus 18:21-23, Numbers 11:16 & 17,

Professor: Rushdoony Dr. R.J.R.

Subject: Systematic Theology

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 16 of 19

Track: #16

Year:

Dictation Name: 16 Satanic Authority

[Rushdoony] Let us worship God. Serve the Lord with gladness, come before his presence with singing, enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him and bless His name, for the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endureth to all generations. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God unto whom all things shall render praise in due time. Life up our hearts now unto Thee in love and adoration, give us grace to justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with Thee all the days of our life. We thank thee for the glory of this creation, and for the greater glory of Thy promises unto us in Jesus Christ. Give us grace so to walk day by day that we might show forth unto all men that we are heirs of salvation, and children of Thy kingdom. In Jesus name, amen.

Our scripture is from the twenty-second chapter of Luke, Luke 22 verses 50-53. Our subject is satanic authority, satanic authority. Luke 22:50-53

“50 And one of them smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear.

51 And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed him.

52 Then Jesus said unto the chief priests, and captains of the temple, and the elders, which were come to him, be ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and staves?

53 When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.” 

The word translated in the last sentence as power is the word we’ve considered again and again in the past few months, exousia, which means power and authority. What our Lord here says is that Satan has legitimate authority for his action against Jesus Christ, and he tells those who came to arrest Him “this is your hour, and the hour of the power, of the authority, of the realm, the kingdom, of darkness.” Repeatedly this expression is used, the expression concerning the exousia, the authority of darkness, of Satan.

For example Paul in Colossians 1:13 & 14 gives thanks to God the Father who delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son; in whom we have redemption, through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Again we have that same word and we have it repeatedly and yet our Lord says before His ascension, all power all authority in heaven and earth is given unto me so that Christ with His resurrection was King of kings and Lord of lords, and yet under Him by His permission Satan has legitimate authority. 

On the other hand we are told by Paul, in these words in Colossians 1:13 & 14 that we who are believers have been delivered from the authority of darkness, the realm, the rule, the kingdom of darkness. We have been translated by God into kingdom of His dear son. The word translated is a word in the Greek which means changed or removed from one standing to another, from one legal status to another, so that now we have a new citizenship and we are under another king. No longer citizens of the kingdom of Satan but members and citizens of the kingdom of Christ. Christ by His atonement has translated, has changed us, to a new standing before God.

Now we have here a fact of very great importance. First we have the clearly legitimate authority of Satan and his kingdom. We live in it,

Professor: Rushdoony Dr. R.J.R.

Subject: Systematic Theology

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 15 of 19

Track: #15

Year:

Dictation Name: 15 The Seraphim

[Rushdoony] Let us worship God. Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the message which we heard from Him and declare unto you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we walk in the light as He is in the light we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. Let us pray.

We come to Thee our Father according to Thy word and confident in prayer, for Thou hast commanded that we should come to Thee to cast our every care upon Thee and to make all our wants and wishes known to Thee through Jesus Christ, and so we come. We pray our Father for our country, deliver us from the hands of ungodly men, cleanse us and make us again a godly and a free people. We pray for Thy suffering saints the world over that Thou wouldst deliver them and confound the power of humanistic statism. Bless us in faithfulness to Thee, and grant now that by Thy word and by Thy word we may behold wondrous things out of Thy law. In Jesus name, amen.

Our scripture lesson is from Isaiah the sixth chapter, Isaiah six our subject The Seraphim.

“In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

5 Then said I, Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:

7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.

10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

11 Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,

12 And the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.

13 But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.” 

Our subject this morning is the seraphim. I wish my voice were up to the subject,

Professor: Rushdoony Dr. R.J.R.

Subject: Systematic Theology

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 14 of 19

Track: #14

Year:

Dictation Name: 14 The Cherubim

[Rushdoony] Let us worship God. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth, thus saith the high and lofty One who inhabiteth eternity whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit; to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite. If thou shalt seek the Lord Thy God Thou shalt find Him, If thou seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God who art the author of all things and in terms of whose will and purpose all things move. We thank Thee that by Thy sovereign grace Thou hast made us a part of Thine eternal purpose. Give us grace therefore so to walk day by day that our eyes may ever be fixed where Thy true purpose is to be found, in Christ our Lord. Bless us this day and always and grant that our hearts and minds be open to Thy word, and that by Thy Spirit we may be made strong in Thee. In Jesus name, Amen

Our scripture the morning is from Ezekiel 28:11-19, and our subject as we continue our studies in the doctrine of authority is The Cherubim. Ezekiel 28:11-19

“11 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

12 Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.

13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.

14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.

16 By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

17 Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.

18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.

19 All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more. 

In the hands of fallen man things depreciate, not only things but words also. This is certainly true of the key word in our text, cherubim and cherub, cherubim is the plural of Cherub. The idea we have now days of cherubs or cherubim is of little baby-like angelic things flitting around on picture post cards and Christmas cards, totally without meaning; just beautiful little objects. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Professor: Rushdoony Dr. R.J.R.

Subject: Systematic Theology

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 13 of 19

Track: #13

Year:

Dictation Name: 13 Authority – Primary and Secondary

[Rushdoony] Let us worship God. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Oh come let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our maker; for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God we give thanks unto Thee, for the freedom with which Thou hast blessed us in the years past. Give us grace and mercy and strength that we might pass on to those to come a like heritage. That we might cleanse this land of ungodliness, that we might again be a free people in Jesus Christ. Bless us through Thy word and by Thy Spirit. Make us strong in Thee to the destroying of the things that are against Thee and the establishing of Thy kingdom from pole to pole. Bless us to this purpose in Jesus name, amen.

Our scripture is from the gospel according to Matthew, the fifteenth chapter verse one through nine. Our subject, authority primary and secondary, authority primary and secondary Matthew 15: 1- 9

“1Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,

2 Why do Thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread.

3 But he answered and said unto them, why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?

4 For God commanded, saying, honor thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.

5 But ye say, whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;

6 And honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.

7 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,

8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. 

The word authority has been in disrepute for many, many generations. This should not surprise us. Man having rebelled against God’s authority is certainly going to rebel authority in any human sphere. He will not be inclined to respect man’s, having rejected God’s authority. A couple of centuries the liberal Anglican Bishop Hoadly said, and I quote “Authority is the greatest and the most irreconcilable enemy to truth and argument that this world ever furnished. All the sophistry, all the color of plausibility, all the artifice and cunning of the subtlest disputer of the world may be laid open and turned to the advantage of that very truth which they are designed to hide. But against authority there is no defense.” What we must say is that Hoadly had reference not to true authority but to man’s authoritarianism. Men have authoritarian pretensions that is a part of man’s sin to be as God.

Now in the history of the church the question of authority has never been a simple one. Two extremes have plagued the church, and we have touched on these before. First, there has been the insistence on the authentication of God’s word and authority by the church. The church says “we are the authenticating institution.” The danger in this is the tendency to exalt the church into...

Professor: Rushdoony Dr. R.J.R.

Subject: Systematic Theology

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 12 of 19

Track: #12

Year:

Dictation Name: 12 The Source of Authority

[Rushdoony] Let us worship God. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Seek Ye the Lord while He may be found, call Ye upon Him while He is near, let the wicked forsake His way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord and He will have mercy upon Him, and to our God for He will abundantly pardon. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God unto whom all power, glory, and dominion belong. We beseech Thee to make us strong in Thee and effectual so that we may serve Thee with all our heart, mind, and being. Might be instrumental in the tearing down of the things which are so that those things which are of Thee may alone remain; and that we may do our work well and cheerfully bear our burden and the burdens of others. Increase our faith that we may trust in Thy word and in Thy promises, and may ever be faithful to Thine every word. Give us patience to wait on Thee, courage in Thy service, and knowledge that Thy word is truth and Thy word shall never return unto Thee void. Bless us ever in Thy service in Jesus name, amen.

Our scripture this morning is from the gospel according to Saint Matthew the Twenty-eighth chapter verse eighteen through twenty, the great commission.

In any society there is an ultimate source of authority. In a general way the source of authority is either supernatural or it is of this world, something within the human order or the natural order. Where we locate our ultimate authority has profound implications for man and society. Over and over again men and nations have gone astray because their source of authority has been a fallacious and an evil one. Very common in the modern world has been the opinion of Rousseau and the social contract. That men project their man-made laws onto the Gods to enhance their own authority. Men invent Gods and ascribe to them the laws, or the orders of society as a means of strengthening their own position. For Rousseau it was not the Gods or God but the general will of mankind which was sovereign law and the source of authority and truth. 

In previous generations before Rousseau men had looked first of all to God for authority and law, and then with the enlightenment to Reason spelled with a capital “R” as some kind of inherent semi-pantheistic force inherent in the world of nature. Now with Rousseau men began to look to man’s emotional responses for authority for truth and for law. Man in his innermost being not consciously but unconsciously, for Rousseau, knew the truth. And it was the function of true philosophy to unleash that subliminal and unconscious knowledge. God was eliminated therefore as the source of authority, truth, and law. Not only so but what previously had been considered the higher and civilized aspects of men were set aside in favor of what had, until then, been regarded as the lower and less civilized aspects of mans nature. Thus man created for himself a new authority, the primitive in himself. Not surprisingly this kind of thinking was in line with the doctrine of cultural evolution which was developing. Man was at his best when he was most natural, that is most primitive. One of the quickest responses to this new thinking was in the arts, and the arts are still under this impulse; in fact they are carrying it to its logical limits to their own self destruction. 

A very obvious example of this was Paul Gauguin, a savage in spite of all the civilization around him and in spite of his own upbringing an...

Professor: Rushdoony Dr. R.J.R.

Subject: Systematic Theology

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 11 of 19

Track: #11

Year:

Dictation Name: 11 The Purpose of Authority

[Rushdoony] This is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will heareth us. Having these promises let us draw near to the throne of grace with true hearts in full assurance of faith. My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning oh Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee and will look up. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God unto whom all power, glory and dominion belongeth we come unto Thy presence rejoicing that as we face a world of men dedicated to their own ways it is Thy way that shall prevail; Thy kingdom that shall triumph and Thy will that shall be done. Strengthen us then by Thy word and by Thy spirit that we may go forth in Thy name to conquer, to bring all things into captivity to Jesus Christ our Lord; that we might know that we have been called to victory. Bless us therefore in Thy service, grant us Thy peace and give us always joy in Thee. In Jesus name, amen.

Our scripture this morning is Matthew 23:13; our subject The Purpose of Authority. Matthew 23:13 is the first verse in a long passage going on to the end of the chapter in which woes and maledictions, curses, are pronounced upon religious leaders and all who follow them into a way that is not of God. Matthew 23:13 The Purpose of Authority.

“But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.”

This symbolism of keys as representing authority is an ancient one, and quite a natural one. Keys after all do unlock wealth. They do unlock knowledge, property, and a great deal more. Wherever there is something of importance, a treasure, there are keys to protect it. The symbol of the key is used in many, many ways. We speak of a key man – the important one, a keyboard- controlling a type writer or computer, we speak of a keystone in the arch – the last stone that is set that binds all things together. We speak of a key note in music and keynote speaker at political conventions. We have of course the familiar symbol of the Phi Beta Kappa key and much, much more. 

Our Lord uses this symbol when he speaks of the keys of the kingdom in Matthew 16 verse 19. In this passage Matthew 23:13 he refers to the keys without using the word. The image here is of an irresponsible key holder who locks people out by misusing authority. The purpose of keys is to unlock doors. But false authorities use their keys, not to lead people into knowledge or wealth or whatever it is they are custodians of, but to bar them. One scholar, Sherman E. Johnson, has said concerning Matthew 23:13 that it tells us that these false authorities have taken away the key of knowledge. They have made the law of God difficult and abstruse, and they have formed exclusive brotherhoods of experts to lock out all except themselves.

Now some time ago we dealt with the distinction between Elitism and hierarchy, and we saw that Elitism means something Humanistic an exclusive group of men who are self-styled leaders, self-appointed experts, self-appointed philosopher kings. The classic document of elitism is Plato’s Republic according to Plato’s Republic most men are to be in a position of slaves, to be manipulated without knowing that they are manipulated while the philosopher kings were exempt from the rules they set for all others. Govern and manipulate the great masses of peopl...

Professor: Rushdoony Dr. R.J.R.

Subject: Systematic Theology

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 10 of 19

Track: #10

Year:

Dictation Name: 10 By What Authority

[Rushdoony] Let us worship God. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Thus saith the high and lofty one who inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a humble and contrite spirit. To revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite, if thou shalt seek the Lord thy God thou shalt find Him. If thou seek Him will all thy heart and with all thy soul. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God unto whom all power, rule, and authority belongs we come into Thy presence acknowledging indeed that we have gone astray, that the whole world is in rebellion against Thee and needs Thy grace and Thy mercy and Thy judgment. Use us oh Lord in these troubled times and empower us by Thy word and by Thy spirit. That we may set forth the claims of Thy kingdom, establish the guidelines of Thy justice or righteousness, and make paramount Thy law and Thy word of truth into the hearts of all men. Bless us to this purpose in Jesus name, amen.

Our scripture is from Matthew the 21st chapter verses 23-27 and our subject “By What Authority?” we continue our studies in the doctrine of Biblical authority. Matthew 21 verses 23-27.

“ 23 And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? And who gave thee this authority?

24 And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things.

25 The baptism of John, whence was it? From heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, if we shall say, from heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him?

26 But if we shall say, of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet.

27 And they answered Jesus, and said, we cannot tell. And he said unto them, neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.” 

The implications of this text for the doctrine of authority is sometimes bypassed by scholars and the reason for doing so is they say that the authority of Jesus is as that of God incarnate, and therefore there is a difference between His authority and that of the rest of us. However this is an invalid statement because our Lord places the issue on the human level by raising the question of John the Baptist’s authority. So that our Lord very definitely makes clear that He was not claiming any authority as He was teaching other than that which scripture provided.

Now the Greek word which is used here for authority is exousia so that we have no particular special problem with the word, it is a word we’ve dealt with previously, exousia, so that authority here is exactly what we would think it to be. The question “By what authority?” is important. It is interesting that the question has been raised most in the Western churches, protestant and catholic. And that it has been a question which has repeatedly created problems and disorders have arisen because of the question of authority. However it is significant that precisely where this question has been raised again and again the greatest vitality in Christendom has been shown, it has been in the Western churches. Obviously therefore it is an important question.