Monday, March 29, 2010

Salvation and Sovereignty

From Rushdoony in an essay with the same title -
"Only because God is sovereign is man's life and salvation even possible. The Greco-Roman world in the day of the early church affirmed the absolute freedom of man from a divine predestination, and also the ultimacy of chance. However, just as Sartre introduced "the force of circumstances," so the thinker of that day introducted and developed the force of circumstances, of the stars, fate, and other aspects of man's environment, so that man's freedom was destroyed, and man became the determined product of a meaningless environment and passive before the world, his maker. The Christians, on the other hand, affirmed predestination and freed man from his environment, so that, instead of being a product of his environment, man became lord over it and a free man under God...

In the joyful ascription of St. Jude, the believer has the certainty of total meaning, total salvation, and the fulness of victory and joy:
"Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. (Jude 24-25)...

It must be acknowledged, however, that men like Skinner, Marx, Stalin, and others have been very much in the right in seeing the link between sovereignty and salvation. As a prelude to their plans of salvation, they insist on total sovereignty by an elite group whose plans constitute a new decree of predestination by the new gods. Sovereignty and salvation cannot be separated. The pertinent question must therefore always be raised with respect to all would-be saviors: to whom does their plan of salvation give sovereignty, and what is the nature of their plan or decree of predestination?
The sad fact is that not only is this question not asked, but the false ministers and priests of Christ are busy denying God's sovereignty and His decree of predestination. Practically, this means that they are denying salvation by the grace of God through Jesus Christ.
But sovereignty denied does not disappear. It is simply transferred to another source. To deny the God of Scriputre is implicitly to affirm other gods." - Salvation and Godly Rule, pp 31, 32, 33