Philippians 2:9–11 is presented as a trumpet-blast declaration that Jesus Christ is Lord God incarnate, exalted by the Father, and sovereign over heaven, earth, and all powers. That confession meant Caesar was under Christ, not the other way around. The early church therefore functioned like an embassy of a foreign kingdom within Rome: obedient to civil order where possible, but ultimately governed by God’s law and commissioned to advance Christ’s kingdom. This claim provoked persecution and has remained the central conflict of history: the ungodly repeatedly seek to restore a totalitarian state over the freedom the gospel won.
Rushdoony traces the church’s historic resistance through Gelasius I’s “two powers” doctrine church and state both under God, with rulers accountable to divine judgment. Medieval emperors and monarchs repeatedly tried to reclaim pagan-style supremacy over the church, while the church at times resisted and at times was corrupted. The Reformation renewed the struggle, and Rushdoony highlights Calvin’s Geneva as a key example of the fight for the church’s independence from civil control and for the state’s obligation to submit to Christ. From Calvin’s legacy, later thinkers like Kuyper and Van Til developed “sphere sovereignty”: every sphere (family, school, arts, business, science, state, church) answers directly to God, and no sphere may tyrannize another.
The core is self-government under God’s Word. An “enscriptured Word” was revolutionary because it placed responsibility on ordinary believers to read, learn, and obey treating Scripture not merely devotionally, but as marching orders for dominion service. Van Til’s contrast stands: theonomy or autonomy. Rushdoony ends by linking Joshua’s commission (Joshua 1) to the Great Commission: God calls His people to courageous obedience, meditating on His law day and night, moving forward in faith to occupy and disciple the nations confident that Christ’s kingdom will prevail.
The Keltzeten Foundation presents Christian Mandit,
Empowerable on God's Judgment.
Part 5 of R.J. Rostunni's Lecture Series,
Christianity and Culture.
Incredible blessing to have Dr. and Mrs. Rostunni with us this weekend.
And if you have been to some of the sessions you know of which I speak,
it's a great privilege to introduce to you Dr. R.J. Rostunni.
He is a holder of various degrees, three doctorate degrees.
He is an ordained minister.
He has served as a missionary to the American Chinese,
the Paiute and Shoshone Indians.
He has served two pastures.
He has been with the Volker Foundation, the Center for American Studies,
former board member and vice president of the Christian Freedom Foundation,
recipient of two research grants.
He is presently president of the Keltzeten Foundation.
And if you know the work that he does there,
he has written well over 30 books.
And he was relating to pagan me yesterday how he believed God has called him to write many more
before he goes home to be with his heavenly father.
So at this time I would like to introduce to you Dr. R.J. Rostunni.
Our scripture this morning is from the gospel according to Luke,
the 18th chapter verses one through eight.
Luke 18, one through eight.
And he spake a parable unto them to this end that men ought always to pray and not to faint.
Saying there was in a city a judge which feared to not God and neither regard it to man.
And there was a widow in that city.
And she came unto him saying avenge me of my adversary.
And he would not for a while.
But afterward he said within himself,
though I fear not God nor man,
yet because this widow troubled me, I will avenge her,
lest by her continual coming, she worry me.
And the Lord said here what the unjust judge said,
and shall not God avenge his only left which cried day and night unto him,
though he bear long with them.
I tell you that he will avenge them speedily,
nevertheless when the son of man cometh.
Shall he find faith on the earth.
I find this parable of very moving and a shattering one.
I first came to its meaning perhaps half a century ago.
I was startled by what it said,
and startled by my ignorance in having read it for many years,
and having missed its point.
I realized that this was a mandate.
One of the sad facts of our day is that the gays have come out of the closet
and the Christians have gone in.
They have retreated from problems.
They figure they are losers.
And I don't believe that because the Bible never teaches that.
Certainly not this parable.
This parable is routinely misunderstood in terms of the last sentence.
Nevertheless, when the son of man cometh,
shall he find faith on the earth.
Because of that sentence, it is routinely held to refer to conditions
at the end of the world, at the last, at the second coming.
But it does not.
When the son of man cometh doesn't mean the last coming,
because over and over and over again,
the Bible speaks of God coming in judgment.
In the Old Testament, once coming in the clouds of judgment,
in Isaiah alone we have at least ten nations
who are going to see the day of the Lord,
the day of his judgment, and sight within a few years.
So obviously this refers to God's judgment,
but not the last judgment,
because God comes often in judgment.
The fall of Rome was a judgment.
The fall of the medieval order was a judgment.
The fall that is beginning all around us of the modern age is a judgment.
It is the day of the Lord.
God comes repeatedly in major judgments and in minor judgments.
And a time of judgment is a time of trouble.
Right now we are in a time of trouble because it is a time of judgment.
70% of all Americans right now are making less than they were two years ago.
That's why so many wives have to work.
In fact, the rise of the number of working women began about 1972 and is steadily increased.
Isn't that a judgment when God creates such chaos in the economic order
when taxes rise so when it becomes necessary for there to be more than one wayjourner in a family
isn't that a judgment upon an age?
We live in a time of judgment when men's hearts fail them for fear.
And so we had better understand the meaning of this parable because it's talking to us,
a parable by our Lord for his people.
And he speak a parable unto them to this end that men ought always to pray and not to faint.
Whatever the judgment that confronts you, whatever the problems, you are not to get discouraged and disheartened
but you are to pray, expecting an answer.
A good answer.
Saying there was in a city a judge which feared not God neither regarded man.
And there was a widow in that city and she came unto him saying avenge me of mine adversary.
Well, you would have to say that our Lord really loaded the deck.
He stacked things, a crooked judge, or judges then and now, especially then.
Had a great deal of freedom to do as they please.
I don't know about this part of the United States but in our part,
unless it's a big city and there are a lot of judges in the city, you don't run against the judge at election time
because as a lawyer you're out of business if you do.
And here's a crooked judge and a widow.
Now widows and orphans are singled out in the Bible as types of helpless people.
The widow in antiquity especially was commonly a prey for con artists.
She was commonly defrauded and an orphan a child without parents.
Who can be more helpless?
So here was a widow.
She had been defrauded.
She had no recourse, no one to go to.
No relative, no friend, nobody to help her.
And she appeals to a crooked, corrupt judge.
Avenge me of my adversary.
And he would not for a while.
But afterward he said within himself,
though I fear not God nor regard man yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her.
That's by her continual coming.
She weary me.
Well this woman did what?
Women very often are very good at.
She nagged the judge.
She sat outside of his office where she could see him every time he went in and out.
And she was there to present her petition.
Avenge me of my adversary.
He'd go in.
When it was time to come out to eat her, to do something whatever, or to see the secretary, whatever it was.
There she was again.
Avenge me of my adversary.
It made him look terrible.
Here was this woman always nagging him every time he went in and out.
Advertising the fact that she had been defrauded and he was doing nothing about it.
He was a crooked man, unjust judge.
A judge is supposed to represent justice.
In many parts the term, including here in the United States and some levels,
is not judge, but justice.
Because they are supposed to be the fountains of justice.
So their very title is justice.
Our judges on the Supreme Court are called justices.
Because that's what they're supposed to represent.
And this has been historically true in one culture after another.
So when you talk of an unjust justice or judge,
you're putting together something that is horrifying.
In the Psalms, God tells the unjust judges, Elohim, as they were called, little gods as it were.
He have lived like gods, but he shall die as men, because you have corrupted by law.
So this unjust judge gets weary of this woman's nagging.
And so he says, I don't care two cents about justice.
I want what I can get.
But this woman is a bad advertisement for me.
She nags me every time I go on come and it's getting to me.
It's wearing me out.
I'll give her what she wants.
And he does.
He does.
That's at the heart of his parable.
Even a crooked judge will at times give justice.
And the Lord said,
hear what the unjust judge said.
And shall not God avenge his only left which cried day and night unto him, though he bear long with them.
Those words sound like a whiplash to me.
What is our Lord saying?
If a crooked judge can give justice how much more so, God the Almighty, the source of all justice.
How dare you pray and not expect an answer?
How dare you not pray when you believe in the name of God?
How dare you endure injustice around you and in your life and not go to the Lord of all justice?
How dare you treat God as though he were not as good as this crooked judge?
If a crooked judge can give a helpless widow justice,
how much more so than God of all justice?
If we do not pray for justice,
we indict God.
We are guilty of blasphemy.
We are saying, well, maybe you're too busy, God.
Maybe you're like the bail whom the priests of bail worshipped and whom he lied to mocked,
saying, shout a little louder, maybe he's asleep and can't hear you.
Is our God like that?
Then why aren't we praying for justice?
It worries me that so often prayers are said for the president, but not in a biblical sense.
And Paul said, pray for all rulers that they may allow us to live a godly life in quietness and peace.
Believe us alone so that we may serve God and pray for justice that we may be freed from the evils of this world.
I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.
That's quite a promise.
Our Lord says men ought always to pray and not to faint because God is better than a crooked judge,
and he will avenge us speedily.
How dare we not pray for justice?
We live in a world surrounded by evil.
Wherever we look, we find ungodliness.
We find legalized horrors like abortion, homosexuality, and now actually taking place as nurses have told me, euthanasia, and much more.
I can recall when in this country not many people lock their doors.
There never was a problem in entire communities.
Now they have all kinds of locks and bars on the doors.
And what of the Christians been doing all the while?
Men ought always to pray and not to faint.
Shall not God avenge his only leg?
Which ones?
Which cry day and night unto him though he bear long with them?
They may not be the best of things.
He has to put up with a great deal from some of us.
He bears long with us, yet he will avenge us.
Are we surrendering our country to the devil?
Are we saying it's hopeless to pray for justice?
Can not God bring about justice and face of all the pharaohs?
All the Presidents and Prime Ministers of this world?
There was a time.
One Christians were ready to get down and pray when they saw evil and then get up and act.
Now we resign ourselves to it.
We act as old, that's all we can expect.
The world is an evil place which it is.
It's a fallen humanity which it is.
But is not our God greater than any of the powers that be?
He who destroyed the power of death can destroy the power of all sin.
Shall not God avenge his only light which cried day and night unto him though he bear long with them.
I began by saying that when I first appreciated the meaning of this parable, it was like a swipe in the face.
I had read, and this goes back about half a century, something in Kipling, and it sounded good.
But I soon came to realize it was evil.
He wrote about not expecting justice.
That was his subject.
Why?
Well, the world is full of evil. A great deal of the world is very ungodly and wherever you go there is more and more evil taking place.
Therefore we should not expect justice in this world.
It sounded so logical only it was ungodly.
We are told in this parable to pray for justice.
And after reading Kipling and agreeing with him, I came across this parable and was ashamed of myself.
When the Son of Man come us, shall he find faith on the earth?
Will he find this faith in a time of judgment?
If he doesn't find it, it's because we brought on the judgment, we retreated.
We hold up at our houses and let the world go to the devil.
We did not pray without fainting that God bring about His justice and overthrow the powers of darkness.
I am asking all of you therefore, make justice, as well as the conversion of the ungodly, a matter of daily prayer in your private devotion.
Otherwise, we will find indeed a time of judgment that will judge us because we have fainted and we have treated God as though he were not up to the caliber of a crooked judge.
We are His children. We are His people.
He will hear us. Let us pray.
O Lord, our God, we come to thee, surrounded by a world of evil.
A world that mocks at thee and thy kingdom.
And thy people are slaughtered like sheep all the day long, all over the world.
Avenge us so Lord of our adversary.
Bring them to their knees in faith or bring them down in thy judgment.
And make of us a people that know thee to be the all righteous judge, our heavenly Father, our shield and our defender.
O Lord, our God, give us zero and pray for thy triumph, thy justice, thy kingdom, in Christ's name, Amen.
This has been A. Calcedan Foundation Production, produced by Grace Community School and Nicene Covenant Church.
If you enjoyed this lecture, be sure to visit calcedan.edu for more lectures and series by RJ Rushdenet and the Calcedan Foundation.
