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July/Aug 2006
T he world is catch-
ing up with the
Marquis de Sade.
Christianity stands as the opposing
system to all who desire a humanistic
utopia. Biblical law abides as the gov-
leadership will serve as a necessary ele-
ment in steering society further into the
humanistic era:
Published perversion erning moral standard in both believer If the Christian Intelligentsia can be
now pervades both the (Heb. 8:10) and unbeliever (Rom. destroyed or won over and the nation
airwaves and the “infor- 2:14–15); it is an inescapable concept— deprived of all its natural leaders, the
mation superhighway” as cable televi- an indelible mark on the heart of man. world-revolutionaries reckon that they
sion and high-end Web services provide Humanistic man’s attempts at will be able to mould the proletariat
eradicating the witness of God’s law will according to their desires.5
immorality on demand. We have not
abandoned our humanistic foundations, not prevail, but his commitment is to This is the strategy of subver-
and the culture of perversion is helping the death. He hates God, and therefore sion that Rushdoony so often referred
to make formerly perverted lifestyles ap- loves death (Prov. 8:36). His drive is re- to—a point often missed by even his
pear acceptable. This will be part of our lentless, and his dedication to revolution most devout readers. For all too many,
undoing as a nation. only demonstrates his impatience in Rushdoony was simply a more astute
We are experiencing the next phase dismantling the Christian social order. voice of Christian conservatism railing
of world revolution. This is not merely His tactics are varied, and often political against left-leaning secularists. This is
another political coup. It is spiritual in as well as economic. Yet, at base it is a too reductionistic. Rushdoony’s great
nature because it seeks to overturn the spiritual revolution—the ultimate tool offense is that he rails against the long-
Western sense of morality—a morality for erasing the moral reign of orthodox standing undermining of a godly social
informed by Biblical law. The Anglophile Christianity: order by the seed of Satan. Although the
“Establishment”2 that manipulates the For the final goal of world-revolution is players may change, the strategy is the
apparatus of the state is seeking nothing
not Socialism or even Communism, it same. So is the solution. Only a return
is not a change in the existing eco- to faithfulness and obedience can undo
short of an overturning of Christian civi- nomic system, it’s not the destruction the machinations of sin and Satan.
lization in order to erect the humanistic of civilization in a material sense; the
metropolis of Plato’s vision: revolution desired by the leaders is a
The modern state has a moral foun- moral and spiritual revolution, an anar- 1. R. J. Rushdoony, Noble Savages: Exposing
dation, but it is not a Christian one. chy of ideas by which all standards set the Worldview of Pornographers and Their
Rather it is emphatically humanistic. up throughout nineteen centuries shall War Against Christian Civilization (Vallecito,
As Quigley noted of the English and be reversed, all honoured traditions CA: Ross House Books, 2005), 5.
American establishment, “[T]heir roots trampled under foot, and above all the
2. Carroll Quigley, The Anglo-American
were to be found in ancient Athens Christian ideal finally obliterated.4
Establishment (San Pedro, CA: GSG &
rather than in modern Manchester.” In And because the revolution is Associates, 1981).
other words, the roots of the humanis-
spiritual, it seeks to align itself with 3. R. J. Rushdoony, Christianity and the
tic order were not in economic reality,
i.e., in Manchester, nor in the free mar- a branch of Christianity that is easily State (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books,
ket. Neither were they in Biblical faith. compromised. By securing the aid of the 1986), 33.
These statists saw themselves in terms Christian leadership, the establishment 4. Nesta H. Webster, Secret Societies and
of Plato’s Republic. Their hostility was hopes to render ineffective the ortho- Subversive Movements (Brooklyn, NY: A&B
reserved for “the darkness of theocratic dox Christian testimony. The spiritual Publishers, 1924), 337.
law,” i.e., Biblical law.3 capacity of the compromised Christian 5. Ibid., 342–343.
The
R YAL
PRIESTHOOD By Roger Schultz
C hildren dream of
being princes and
princesses. Genealo-
from that of the Levitical priesthood,
where one tribe was set apart for cer-
emonial and ritual functions. The entire
Israel as His people because they were
numerous, impressive, or significant in
themselves. His election was in fulfill-
gists scrutinize the past nation was to be a royal priesthood. ment of His covenant promises (Deut.
looking for evidence of God’s calling of Israel was dramatic. 7:6–8, 10:15).
the noble or notewor- Having just been delivered from bond- Consecrated Israel was called to
thy in their family trees. People desire age in Egypt, the people were endowed obedience to God’s law and command-
a unique lineage, I suspect, because it with a unique station as priests and ments. The nation’s status was depen-
points to a nobility of status and pur- kings. As God declares, “Now therefore, dent upon its faithfulness to God’s cov-
pose. Even those who discover a horse if you will indeed obey My voice and enant (Exod. 19:5). The requirement of
thief or rogue among their ancestors are keep My covenant, then you shall be a obedience is made emphatic elsewhere,
usually pleased because it is testimony special treasure to Me above all people; for instance in Deuteronomy 26:16–19,
of something unusual. We want to be for all the earth is Mine. And you shall where God promises praise, fame, and
special—and descended from something be to Me a kingdom of priests and a honor for an obedient and consecrated
special. holy nation. These are the words which people.
Scripture teaches that the people you shall speak to the children of Israel” Israel enjoyed its priestly status, fur-
of God are a royal and priestly people. (Exod. 19:5–6 NKJV). thermore, because of God’s redemptive
Even the common and ordinary can
Israel was God’s unique possession. mercy. Israel was called to “keep” God’s
have a noble status, a high calling, and
The whole nation had a priestly func- covenant (Exod. 19:5). The covenant
an extraordinary purpose. Because of
tion: they were to be a consecrated and was initiated by a sovereign God and
God’s election and calling, every believer
holy people (Deut. 4:20, 14:2). Moses confirmed through the shedding of
is declared to be part of a royal and holy
was explicitly commanded to inform the blood (Gen. 15:8–10). Exodus 24:6–8
nation.
children of Israel of their calling (Exod. records a fascinating event of covenant
The Old Testament 19:3, 6). In other words, they had to making, as Moses read the book of the
Royal Priesthood know about their new status. covenant and sprinkled the people with
Old Testament Israel had a royal, Israel’s priestly call was tied to God’s sacrificial blood. His language (“the
priestly calling. This calling was separate sovereign election. He did not choose blood of the covenant”) is appropriated
T he first law of
subversion is let-
ter simple: it’s always
It is no surprise to find that Chris-
tians are being accused of subversion,
now that the populace has been taught
voked (parts that Coulter is not averse
to amplifying in front of a microphone).
Coulter goes into considerable detail
the other guy who is to adopt statist conceptions as the ac- on the worldview of what she calls the
the subversive. When cepted frame of reference. In short, one official state religion of the United States
people speak reproach- way to subvert Christianity is to charge (liberalism), illustrating that this religion
fully of subversion, their judgment is it with subversion. Merely making the is replete with its own “sacraments
always cast up against a value-laden charge of subversion against Christian- (abortion), its holy writ (Roe v. Wade),
background, however strenuously they ity automatically elevates its accusers to its martyrs..., its clergy (public school
protest neutrality. Anything working the office of guardian of treasured values teachers ...), its doctrine of infallibility ...
against our perceptions of how things because of what the term subversion and its cosmology.”2
should be is inherently subversive. Since connotes. The book is ably written and docu-
people have opposing positions on how mented. The last third documents the
things should be, it is not surprising Blunder or Wonder? case against evolution by way of a fasci-
that charges of subversion fly across the Humanists are very much distressed nating exposé of the interaction between
rhetorical landscape, fueled no doubt by the release of Ann Coulter’s new the proponents of Intelligent Design
by the pejorative connotations the term book, Godless: The Church of Liberal- and the keepers of the Darwinian flame.
has accumulated over time. As a label, ism.1 The level of distress is easy to This part of the book is problematic
divorced from context, subversion is a discern: it’s proportional to the outrage from the humanistic point of view
loaded weasel word. selected parts of the book have pro- primarily because Coulter has already
K evin Phillips
has three major
concerns in American
religion” as “hostile to science.” With
barely concealed derision, Phillips re-
marks, “Their biblically viewed world is
Theocracy: the Ameri- at most ten thousand years old, not the
can thirst for oil in the millions of years established by scientists,
face of shrinking global whose insistence on this longer time
reserves, a habitual reliance upon debt, frame is said to usurp God’s preroga-
and an overabundance of Christian tive” (67). Elsewhere, Phillips men-
zealots. Phillips, a former Republican tions “claiming absolute truth” among
strategist, believes that the Republican the “principal perverse fundamentalist
party is now dominated by representa- tendencies” (205). One wonders if Phil-
tives of all three groups. The unifying lips is absolutely certain that claiming
influence is the Christian Right, as an absolute truth is inappropriate.
apologist for reckless oil consumption Phillips is convinced that Bibli-
and borrowing. The GOP has become, cal inerrancy is the enemy of progress.
Phillips says, “the first religious party in Startlingly, he writes, “No leading world
U.S. history,”1 and it is traditional, po- economic power has ever maintained
litically active Christianity that inspired itself on the cutting edge of innovation
the title for the book. and development with a political coali-
tion that panders to Biblical inerrancy”
Phillips vs. Christianity highly irritating to Phillips, judging from (67). But Christianity has clearly been
Phillips’ complaint about Christian the number of mentions in the book. a friend of research and innovation.
influence may come as a bit of a surprise What Phillips takes as clear-cut scien- The nations with the most prominent
to Christians who note the removal tific conclusions about global warming, Bible-believing groups led the Indus-
of Christian references, symbols, and evolution, and oil resources are chal- trial Revolution. Even Phillips himself
memorials from the public square, the lenged by some Christians who check acknowledges this later in the book:
expulsion of any overt Christian teach- science against what is known from “The three Protestant ‘Hebraic analogy’
ing from government schools, the steady the Bible. The Bible may not say much and covenanting cultures—Dutch, Brit-
advance of the feminist and homosexual about climate change or petroleum geol- ish, and then American—just happened
political agenda, and the ejection of ogy in particular, but many Christians to produce the three successive leading
God’s law from courtrooms. Yet Ameri- draw inferences from Biblical chronol- world economic powers of the seven-
can Theocracy argues that conservative ogy and the account of Noah’s flood. teenth through twenty-first centuries ...
Christianity is excessively powerful, Also, conservative Christians argue that If any unusual lobby has guided Dutch,
among the greatest “menaces to the the government’s responses to allegedly British, and U.S. attentions, clergy and
Republic” (ix). looming environmental or resource di- readers of Scripture must be in the van”
The book’s main objections to con- sasters are constrained by Biblical limits (126–127).
servative Christianity coalesce around on the civil magistrate (e.g., Romans Phillips unleashes much of his anti-
three themes: Biblical inerrancy, escha- 13). But Phillips rejects any attempt to Christian sentiment on dispensational
tology, and American exceptionalism. subordinate science or policy to divine premillennialism. “The rapture, end-
The idea of Biblical inerrancy must be revelation, characterizing “evangelical times, and Armageddon hucksters in
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