R.J. Rushdoony - Sovereignty

Sovereignty

R.J. Rushdoony

Chalcedon/Ross House Books

Vallecito, California

Copyright 2007

Mark R. Rushdoony

Ross House Books

PO Box158

Vallecito, CA 95251

www.ChalcedonStore.com

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwiseexcept for brief quotations for the purpose of review or comment, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress: 2007928848

ISBN: 9781879998490

This volume is dedicated to

Dr. Ellsworth McIntyre

and the staff members of

Grace Community Schools, Naples, Florida

in great appreciation

for their generous support

of the work of my father.

Rev. Mark R. Rushdoony

President, Chalcedon Foundation

Foreword

Sovereignty

Sovereignty and Law

Sovereignty, Land, and Welfare

The Growing Collapse of the World of Humanism

Biblical Reconstruction

Kingship

Sin, Guilt, and Civil Government

Elitist Authority

Sovereignty and Reform

The Voice of Reason

The Source of Law

The Alternatives in Sovereignty

Priorities and Social Consequences

The Lust for Sovereignty

The New Sovereignty

Legitimacy

Congruity

Consumerism

Impersonal Sovereignty

Sovereign Insanity

Sovereignty, Rights, and Right

What is Law?

What is Justice?

Sovereignty and Justice

Government and Dominion

Lordship and Memory

Sovereignty, Power, and Dominion

Sovereignty, Order, and Justification

Justification and Justice

The Keys of the Kingdom

The Conquest of Canaan

Authority and Law

Political Atheism

Cultural Atheism

Artistic Atheism

Definitions and Sovereignty

Education and Sovereignty

Sovereignty and Dominion

Mans Law

Theocracy

The Devil Theory of Politics

Reformation in Church and State

The Civil Revolution, Part 1

The Civil Revolution, Part 2

The Civil Revolution, Part 3

The Civil Revolution, Part 4

The Civil Revolution, Part 5

The Civil Revolution, Part 6

The Civil Revolution, Part 7

The Civil Revolution, Part 8

The Civil Revolution, Part 9

The Dream of Reason

The Decline of Relevance

Justice

The Nietzschean State

Justice and Mans Determination

Poetic Justice

Justice and the Church

Law, Order, and Justice

Canon Law

Sovereign Power

Predestination and the State

St. Ambrose

Civil Donatism

The State as the Source of Grace

History: Antiquarian or Religious?

The Dying State, Part 1

The Dying State, Part 2

The Dying State, Part 3

Sovereignty and Sadomasochism

Census

The State as Church

The Pharisee State

Forgiveness and Social Order

The Lockean State

The Elite

The Revolutionary Ideology

The Locale of Sovereignty

Sovereignty and Necessity

The Goal of Sovereignty

Scripture Index

Index

W hy is Psalm 110 so important? Because it is the Psalm most quoted in the New Testament. Its frequency of citation underscores its import: it is a powerful text.

What is the most quoted Scripture in the works of R. J. Rushdoony? Runners-up include Genesis 1:2628 (the so-called dominion mandate), Matthew 28:1820 (the Great Commission), and Proverbs 8:36 (all they that hate me love death), but there can be no question as to the most crucial text in Rushdoonys works: it is Genesis 3:5 .

Genesis 3:5 . There is no more pivotal text in a fallen world: it explains why, how, and in what direction our world fell. The entirety of redemptive history involves Gods dragging man out of the pit created by the seductive promise embodied in Genesis 3:5 . But Christendom has not only failed to learn the lessons of Genesis 3:5 , it has too often co-opted the tempters program laid out by the serpent of Eden. It is crucial to understand this one indisputable fact: the program put across by the serpent involved sovereignty .

Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Since the Hebrew Elohim appears here, there is authority for translating the serpents promise thus: Ye shall be as God. Equality with nothing less than God Himself is being extended to Eve. Unlike Christ ( Phil. 2:6 ), Eve and Adam did attempt to gain equality with God by means of robbery and preemptive seizure.

On theological grounds, the serpents promise can be put in compellingly equivalent terms: ye shall be sovereign! Satan was extending to man the promise of sovereignty, of mans lordship over himself. Lordship and sovereignty are virtually synonymous: the attributes of one are the attributes of the other. To be sovereign is to be subordinate to no one: all is subject to the sovereign, but the sovereign is beholden only to himself. Sovereignty entails possessing the authority to define, to determine the definition of all things. Rushdoony hence extends the rest of the serpents promise in light of the promised attributes of sovereignty: Ye shall be as gods, knowing [ or determining for yourselves ] what is good and evil. The explanatory phrase added in brackets captures the sense in which sovereignty defines all moral dimensions; it is an addendum consistently incorporated by Rushdoony to clue his readers in on the core issues driving modern mans mad groping after sovereignty. A true sovereign doesnt merely know what is good and evil: a sovereign can and will define it. A sovereign is the source of law; he is not subject to it .

The penchant, the inner drive, for seizing sovereignty from a transcendent God and relocating it to this world takes two fundamental forms: individuals appropriating sovereignty and the states claim to sovereignty. Rushdoony herein contrasts these two warring factions in trenchant terms:

What we have are two anarchistic would-be sovereigns, modern man, and the modern state. Two sovereigns, however, cannot coexist with any peace. As a result, both are extending their powers and their self-will. The modern state grows daily more powerful, and modern man grows daily more lawless. For sovereign man, the way of expressing his claim of sovereignty is to defy the law and will of the state. Both man and the state seek to displace God as the center . The means of attaining this role as the center of being is power . Hence the voracious hunger of the state for ever-increasing controls over every area of life and thought. (p. )

This emphasis on power is a destructive one for man, since a quest for power displaces a quest for moral order, particularly within the context of freedom and its responsibilities.

According to Lapham, Americans tend to prefer the uses of power to the uses of freedom. The emphasis on private power versus public power leads to a man-centered society, and a society in conflict. This conflict of interests is thus harmful to both the private and public sectors. Moreover, the public versus private concern is not a moral one: it is a quest for power, not for moral order. As a result, in politics, law, education, and other spheres morality is no longer a social consideration; morality at best has become a private concern. (pp. 8081 )