Baal Worshippers
Not until men look to Jesus Christ for salvation rather than to the state will the trend change. Not until men are governed by God will they seek to be less governed by the state.
- R. J. Rushdoony,
California Farmer 241:8 (Nov. 16, 1974), p. 32.
In the week of August 26 through 31, 1974, as the California State Senate rushed to conclude its work, 496 bills were quickly passed with no discussion on the floor. These were approved, without debate, in blocks of twenty to sixty bills. These measures were appropriations and regulatory measures. Every Californian is a little poorer and more regulated because of them.
What happened was not unusual either for California or for other states. About one-fourth of all bills are passed without debate in California, and in some states the ratio is higher. There is discussion and debate, of course, in committee hearings.
Why do such things happen? The primary fault is not in the senators but in the people. All those bills had great numbers of people demanding their passage and believing that the new law would lead the state a big step closer to paradise.
If you have never heard these people testify before a committee, you have missed something. It is a good example of old-time revival fervor. Various groups regard the passage of a bill governing others, or spending money for some cause, as the salvation of man. They are like the prophets of Baal who cried, “O Baal, hear us” (1 Kings 18:26). They come to wake up their Baal, the state, and thereby to save the country.
Next year, there may be 596 bills pushed through the same way, because the legislation demanded is too much for any legislative body to deliberate on. As a result, each year we will be a little less free, and a little more taxed, and so it will continue as long as we continue to be Baal-worshippers.
Not until men look to Jesus Christ for salvation rather than to the state will the trend change. Not until men are governed by God will they seek to be less governed by the state. Only as men develop more strength through faith and obedience will they cease to try to create it by statist law.
There were 450 prophets of Baal as against the lone Elijah, but it was Elijah who triumphed, because the God of Elijah was and is the living God, but the Baal of the prophets was a product of their imagination. Men who deny the living God will make the state or man their Baal or master. Who is your Lord and Savior?
- 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.