Discuss Theology

Rushdoony wrote in the One and the many[p.20], “since there is an equal ultimacy of unity and plurality in the eternal One-and-Many, there is an equal delegation of authority in the temporal one and many…this means that there is a division of powers, a general diffusion of authority, and a balance of controls and powers throughout the entire structure of civil government”. It seems to me that the supreme Court should take note of that statement

“No sooner do I conceive of the One than I am illumined by the splendour of the Three; no sooner do I distinguish them than I am carried back to the One.”[Oration 40, 41]

“And that there is so great an equality in that Trinity, that not only the Father is not greater than the Son, as regards divinity, but neither are the Father and Son together greater than the Holy Spirit; nor is each individual person, which ever it be of the three, less than the Trinity itself.”[Augustine, On the Trinity, Book VIII, preface]

Recent High court decisions about the 10 commandments bode ominous when one re-reads the 1968 publication from Rousas John Rushdoony who wrote in the Foundations of Social Order,
“When unity and particularity [or individuality] are in their ultimate source transcendental and firmly

grounded in the triune God

, man’s realization of unity and individuality is freed from the oppressive presence of the state as the realized order….Christianity was no sooner a recognized religion [in the Roman empire] than its orthodox thinkers began to push back the claims of the state”. I would say we Christians are feeling an oppressive presence when a merely human court decides where and under what context the 10 commmandments [originally delivered on a quaking and fiery mountain] can be displayed. The Trinitarian God of the gospel demands our allegiance and our disgust with this decision.

“God in Three persons, Blessed Trinity”
Charles Wesley
Founding Patriarch Methodist Church
1700′s

Any time a militant Islamic terrorist strikes against a western target, they see themselves as striking against an infidel [and probably a Christian infidel]. Islam hates and derides the idea of the Trinity. A former Presbyterian missionary to Afghanistan, Dr. J. Christy Wilson Jr. wrote about this derision in his book, “More Precious than Gold”.

A Trinitarian understanding of God forces one to adhere to the separation of powers as outlined by the founding fathers. The Supreme court pushes us to think that the powers are, in fact, not separate but united. Rather than the Trinitarian balance of unity and diversity, we have only unity-The Supreme court of the United States. It is amazing that people forget that there is a truly “Supreme” Court to which men will one day give an account [such as will we honor the Ten commandments or not?]

Karl Barth wrote that “Trinity” is the christian word for God.

• What do we think the Oxford don would say to our Open Theist friends?