The Sixth Principle: The Fear of God and His Jealousy In Deuteronomy 6:10-15, another central point is made with respect to the implications of the Shema Israel: And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land which He swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee - great and goodly cities, which thou didst not build, and houses full of good things, which thou didst not fill, and cisterns hewn out, which thou didst not hew, vineyards and olive-trees, which thou didst not plant, thou shalt eat and be satisfied - then beware lest thou forget the LORD, who brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God; and Him only shalt thou serve, and by His name shalt thou swear. Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples that are around about you; for a jealous God, even the LORD thy God, is in the midst of thee; lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee; and He destroy thee from off the face of the earth. (Masoretic Text of the Jewish Publication Society of America, hereinafter referred to as MTV). Here, the sixth principle of the first commandment is the fear of God or the jealousy of God dependent upon the perspective from which the activity is viewed. The central point is that there is no other law-order than that established by God. Thus Christ could not do away with the law as he was an image of the invisible God and, hence, having the Holy Spirit he partook of the divine nature and could issue no instruction other than that which was conveyed to him from the nature of God through the Holy Spirit. Rushdoony says: Thus the sixth principle is the jealousy of God. This is a fact of cardinal importance. The chosen people are warned, as they occupy and possess a rich land which they did not develop, lest they forget God, who delivered and prospered them. Seeing the wealth which came from a culture hostile to God, God’s covenant people will be tempted to see other means to success and prosperity than the Lord. The temptation will be to go after other gods ... the gods of the people around about. This is to believe that there is another law-order than God’s order; it is to forget that the success and the destruction of the Canaanites was alike the work of God. It is the provocation of God’s wrath and jealousy. The fact that jealousy is associated repeatedly with the law, and invoked by God in the giving of the law, is of cardinal importance in understanding the law. The law of God is not a blind, impersonal, and mechanically operative law. ... But the jealous God prevents the triumph either of Canaan or an apostate Israel or church. Without a jealous, personal God, no justice is possible. (ibid., pp. 24-25) The assumption that is often made from this principle is that might and numbers constitute the Church of God. This assumption is incorrect. The triumph of the Church of God is at the resurrection at the return of Messiah for the millennial rule. It is for this reason that the trinitarian system, and specifically the Catholic Church, must allocate to itself the function of true Church under the reign of Christ now, when clearly that is not so according to Scripture. Scripture advances a false church of great power under a world system ruled by Satan and the power of the beast. This church (represented by the term woman) is drunk on the blood of the saints and martyrs (Rev. 17:1-6). This system exists in and accommodates a world ruled by the god this world (2Cor. 4:4) and the prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2). The blessing of the Covenant Israel proceeds to the nation by birthright and is kept by the individuals within the nation who adhere to the faith. It was evident from the fifteenth century that perhaps half of England was privately Unitarian over the Reformation and indeed the Godhead is identified by many within trinitarian structures in Unitarian terms. For this reason God has protected Israel His chosen regardless of the suppression of theological truth in many areas.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 13:05:20 +0000
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