False Cures
The corruption of the body politic will thus continue until there is a change in the people, conversion. Until then, all the cures will be false ones, suicidal, trifling, and corrupting.
- R. J. Rushdoony,
California Farmer 246:6 (Mar. 19, 1977), p. 40.
It is possible to cure a headache by blowing out your brains, but I would not recommend it to anyone. On the other hand, some relief can be had, but no cure at all, for some kinds of cancer with salves or ointments, but such remedies solve nothing.
False and inappropriate cures are what Jeremiah talked about in 6:14 and 8:11 (and repeatedly elsewhere), declaring, “For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.”
The basic problem of the nation was sin, apostasy from God, but on all sides the answers given were either suicidal or trifling. Instead of facing up to the religious and moral roots of their problem, the people sought suicidal military or cheap political answers. Against this Jeremiah protested.
Our world is like Jeremiah’s. Few want to face up to the real problem. Politics was important to Jeremiah, and it should be to us, but politics cannot save us. If the people are apostate and immoral, they will elect men in their own image. My cousin’s wife was recently a member of a delegation of farm women meeting with a nationally prominent elected official. She found quickly that his every word and act was governed, not by justice or truth, but self-promotion and an eye on votes. Such men, being bad trees, can only give us bad fruit, as our Lord made clear (Matt. 7:15–20).
Moreover, the cures proposed by such men are the same as those Jeremiah condemned in his day. They are either suicidal or useless. Scripture tells us that men outside of Christ, men in rebellion against God, are spiritually dead, and they are judicially condemned or dead in God’s sight. Dead men cannot produce life or salvation but only corruption. The corruption of the body politic will thus continue until there is a change in the people, conversion. Until then, all the cures will be false ones, suicidal, trifling, and corrupting.
- 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.