We continue our look at law and its relation to creation. Rushdoony posits that the two origins of man that we have been discussing will impact our view of law. On the one hand, you have the orderly account of creation as directed by God and on the opposite spectrum you have the chaos of evolution. For the Christian, man was created and placed into the Garden under the loving care of God. While man was at liberty, it was a liberty under the dominion of God and as such, it was not devoid of law, but infused thoroughly with God’s law. As Rushdoony writes, “the principle of law was at stake daily in Paradise. Would man recognize God as the source of law or would man declare himself to be the source of law?”(pg.38) I guess it is not without some irony that the same question is being asked by man to this very day because of the later actions of Adam in the Garden. Alongside this understanding of God’s law as upholding Eden is the idea that part of Adam’s dominion responsibility was to maintain the Garden, to find accountability in the daily work that he accomplished. This close tie between work and law is why when Adam violated the law and was brought under the curse, it affected everything in life, including making his work more onerous. For this reason, there is a close tie to how we view our work and our relationship to law. Rushdoony continues this tie of law and the beginning of man’s creation to show that law was a part of everything that happened in the Garden and when Adam fell by violating the command of God and lifting his own authority up over God, it took the atoning work of a Savior, Jesus Christ, to repair that communion. Only when that communion was reestablished could man then rightfully take his place back under law as a tool of sanctification vice a hammer of justice. Although it is a mere note in this chapter, the evolutionist obviously views man’s relationship to law completely apart from the above scenario and from God. For this reason, law is a part of the chaos that has evolved along the same currents of man, not tied to ultimate authority or truth. Unfortunately, man, unable to find salvation and sanctification in God’s grace must use his own law to achieve those ends which invariably will end in man subjugating himself to the tyranny of another.
Whereas the Christian sees law as ultimate order, the outcome of God’s dominion over creation, for the evolutionist, law is the product of change and as such, can never be understood as absolute. With no universal foundation for law, its evolutionary aspect comes about through the changing customs, morals and whims of those in a position to direct change. What is lawful and unlawful one day can, by definition, be reversed and even the criminal, by taking action against the law can be regarded as a pioneer of judicial change if his behavior is deemed acceptable in the new order. Such a philosophy means is that there can technically be no breakdown in law and order, only a shift in how law is viewed and applied. Just as God’s law is meant to direct the ways of man, so also does the evolutionist seek to use this new law to shape the behavior of the people. Instead of finding reference and identity in God, man is told to find his identity in society at large of the state. Law, instead of being man’s ultimate foundation for truth, becomes nothing more than “an instrument of social change. Evolutionary thinking makes law relative and changing, but the mechanism of change is thereby made absolute.”(pg. 43) Unfortunately, we today as Americans, either subconsciously or not, have bought into this evolutionary idea as related to law and we see it evident daily. Not a day goes by where the laws and our national foundations are challenged and assaulted on every front. Sure, the opponents of universal God given truth are, as of yet, not always so brazen in this embrace of evolutionary change, but instead couch their corrosive attacks under the guise of progress. Can we not agree that the deviants of the past are viewed as the pioneers of our future and those relics of the past now seen as the socially stunted? Make no mistake, this is not without purpose, it is the logical outcome of separating ourselves from God and his loving laws. What our society will find out too late though is that evolutionary man and his embrace of change, must, by necessity, remain the revolutionary until society has been remade in the image of men.
No comments:
Post a Comment