Voting Ourselves Out of Freedom
We have not yet had anyone run for office, or apply for a job, or serve as a pastor, on a program of planned deceit. Instead, they offer us fair promises which offer us solutions by programs, but which bring us only more troubles, or more troubles with taxes.
- R. J. Rushdoony,
Proverbs 12:5 tells that "[t]he thoughts of the righteous are right: but the counsels of the wicked are deceit,"
The word "thoughts" here means essentially the plans, principles, and the intentions that we live by, the governing direction of our lives. It does not mean our every thought but the basic governing thinking of a man which reveals itself in action. It is that which St. Paul speaks of when he says, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5). St Paul is not speaking of a mere profession of faith but of a life so lived that it manifests the governing power of Christ and His Word.
Solomon goes on to tell us that "the counsels of the wicked are deceit." The word "counsels" has the same meaning as "thoughts," and "deceit" means "underhanded." It refers, not to the practices of open evildoers and criminals, but to hypocrites. Such wicked men are deceitful or underhanded in that they profess one thing and do another. They profess to believe in the Lord, but their intentions are to exploit the cover of Christian faith for other purposes. Their "counsels" are thus hidden and underhanded.
All this seems obvious enough, but do we apply it? In an election year, do we go by a man's promises, or his charismatic appeal, all of which can be full of deceit, or are we ready to examine the mind they manifest?
We have not yet had anyone run for office, or apply for a job, or serve as a pastor, on a program of planned deceit. Instead, they offer us fair promises which offer us solutions by programs, but which bring us only more troubles, or more troubles with taxes.
Something is wrong with them, and with us. If we are conned once or twice, our human failings and shortcomings can readily explain it. However, if we are conned regularly, it means that something is radically wrong with us. It means that our mind and thought is not the mind of Christ but of a fool, a sucker, one who wants something for nothing and gets instead nothing for something.
Either we live in the mind of Christ, or we go on voting ourselves out of one thing after another, including our freedom.
(Originally published in A Word in Season, Vol. 3, "The Mind of Christ," by R.J. Rushdoony
- R. J. Rushdoony
Rev. R.J. Rushdoony (1916–2001), was a leading theologian, church/state expert, and author of numerous works on the application of Biblical law to society. He started the Chalcedon Foundation in 1965. His Institutes of Biblical Law (1973) began the contemporary theonomy movement which posits the validity of Biblical law as God’s standard of obedience for all. He therefore saw God’s law as the basis of the modern Christian response to the cultural decline, one he attributed to the church’s false view of God’s law being opposed to His grace. This broad Christian response he described as “Christian Reconstruction.” He is credited with igniting the modern Christian school and homeschooling movements in the mid to late 20th century. He also traveled extensively lecturing and serving as an expert witness in numerous court cases regarding religious liberty. Many ministry and educational efforts that continue today, took their philosophical and Biblical roots from his lectures and books.