The Hidden Hand – Part 1
TimeWatch Editorial
November 13, 2015
A gentleman by the name of Rousas John Rushdoony has become an incredibly influential thinker in the world of the Religious Right in America. He was born April 25, 1916. Rushdoony is believed by many to be the father of Reconstructionism. Reconstructionists desire to see a theocracy established in America based upon the restoration of Mosaic Law . At first, this may seem quite non-threatening; however, this is not the case. The theocracy they seek will apply God's law in such a way that it will approve of the death penalty, not only for murder, but also for all forms of idolatry, homosexuals, adulterers, practitioners of witchcraft, and blasphemers, and perhaps even recalcitrant youths.
Rushdoony’s book, Institutes of Biblical Law, states emphatically that Under the Mosaic Legal System, the list of civil crimes which carried a death sentence would include homosexuality, adultery, incest, lying about one's virginity, bestiality, witchcraft, idolatry or apostasy, public blasphemy, false prophesying, kidnapping, rape, and bearing false witness in a capital case. Rushdoony is also quoted by Dale A. Johnson, in his book: “Is God Dead Yet?” as saying:
As we shall see, as we continue to look at this, the Reconstructionists have an agenda that fulfills the prophetic direction of the United States and the World. Revelation 13: verse 12 is quite clear:
“And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.”
When you listen to Rushdoony, at first his word is quite agreeable. Listen to him speak in the opening section entitled: The Validity of Biblical Law:
“God, in creating man, ordered him to subdue the earth and to exercise dominion over the earth (Gen. 1:28). Man, in attempting to establish separate dominion and autonomous jurisdiction over the earth (Gen.3:5), fell into sin and death. God, in order to reestablish the Kingdom of God, called Abraham, and then Israel, to be His people, to subdue the earth, and to exercise dominion under God. The law, as given through Moses, established the laws of godly society, of true development for man under God, and the prophets repeatedly recalled Israel to this purpose.”
That sounds harmless enough wouldn’t you think? Then he says:
“As the new chosen people of God, the Christians are commanded to do that which Adam in Eden, and Israel in Canaan, failed to do. One and the same covenant, under differing administrations, still prevails. Man is summoned to create the society God requires. The determination of man and of history is from God, but the reference of God’s law is to this world. “To be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6), and to be spiritually minded does not mean to be other-worldly but to apply the mandates of the written word under the guidance of the Spirit to this world.”
So you begin to see the direction of his application. In other words, we or more specifically, they, the Reconstructionists, are called by God to establish Biblical Law upon the earth, politically, economically, militarily and spiritually. These ideas are the driving force behind what we widely describe as the “Religious Right” today. As we will continue to see, its influence in Congress and local governments is widespread.
Cameron A. Bowen
