Natural Law Pluralism refuted number 15. Natural Law Pluralism refuted number 15 and what we're going to be looking at is Van Drunen, his view of the prophets and his position is that the prophets don't condemn idolatry in any country at all and we should interpret that, that we shouldn't have any laws against idolatry in a Christian nation. Of course he doesn't believe that there should be ever such a thing as a Christian nation because he believes in pluralism. He believes in this idea of neutrality. Our text will be from Deuteronomy 18 and I'll start at verse 9. 9 to 13. When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations, the Lord your God drives them out from before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. For these nations which will be disbest, listen to soothsayers and diviners, but as for you, the Lord your God has not appointed such for you. And then it goes on to prophesy the coming of Christ. We've come to our second point. We started this in our last message. We've come to our second point, which is Deuteronomy 18. And the question is, does God accept pluralism? And I'm not talking about pluralism of different Christian Bible-believing denominations that can all live in peace together. I'm not talking about that. That's not what he wants. He's not talking about that. He's talking about pluralism where you've got Satanism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, the cults. Everything's wide open. Everything's legal. Does God approve of that? And that's the question. Does God approve of that or not? He says the prophets, God doesn't condemn any of that. So we shouldn't condemn it either. And he connects that with his view of the Noahic covenant. But we're gonna see he's wrong, very wrong. We've come to the second point. There are many passages that explicitly contradict van Drunen's argument that God does not condemn idolatry in other nations outside of Israel. In Deuteronomy 18, which you just read, and there's other parts of Deuteronomy 18, we are told that God drove the heathen nations out of their lands because of their idolatry. He destroyed them because he hated their false religions. When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of these nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. These are all religious practices. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations, the Lord is driving them out from before you. Were those religious practices or not? Yes, they're religious practices. You have here a description of various religious practices. Many of these practices involved attempt to predict and control the future through false notions of revelation. And that's the big thing. If you don't have the vision, if you don't have the word of God, what do people do? Well, they turn to false forms of revelation. God condemns this. These foreign officers these foreign offices and practices which were an abomination to the Lord were to be forbidden in Israel precisely because they were part of the reason for God's judgment of the Canaanites, which would be seen in their ejection from the land. If the Israelites adopted similar practices, they too would become liable to ejection from the land. So keep that in mind. These practices were outlawed, by the way, in the medieval Europe, as bad as it was, because of Romanism and the corruptions, but it was outlawed in the medieval Europe and the Reformation eras because they were condemned explicitly in the law of God and scripture. That's where they got that from. They didn't get that from natural law. They didn't look at a beaver building his dam and decide that witchcraft was bad. They looked at the Bible. Such practices were common in pagan nations in the ancient world, and many such practices are common in Western nations today. While human sacrifices in religious rituals are illegal today, witchcraft, sorcery, astrology, seances, attempts to contact the dead, fertility cults, they're all legal. and they're popular in many circles and they're becoming extremely popular in places like Great Britain. Witchcraft, Wicca, they call it Wicca. They call it white magic and all this kind of nonsense. It's all satanic. The relationship of various kinds of false prediction, witchcraft, magic, spiritualism, to subversion deserves extensive study. Somebody should study this. It is no coincidence that May Day, the ancient fertility cult, festival of witches, has repeatedly become a day of central importance to revolutionaries as witnessed the Marxists in their May Day. There's a connection between Marxism and Satanism. There's no doubt a connection between that. They both come from the same source. The old theories of natural law advocated as a national ordering of society, produced secular humanism and unbelief, because unregenerate men view nature through God-hating, truth-suppressing glasses. Secular humanism and nihilism, excuse me, rationalism produced, led in turn to evolutionary theory, nihilism and irrationalism. The great rise in witchcraft, sorcery, occultism, and magic after the 1960s, and it really gets into the swing after the 1890s, after evolutionary theory had been accepted, there was a great shift. Spiritualism and seances were extremely popular in the United States, and mysticism and all this thing was extremely popular in Germany, and that's one of the reasons that Hitler came to power. The great rise in Satanism, witchcraft, sorcery, occultism, and magic after the 1960s is a product of the West view of natural law. Natural law in the hands of the heathen produces an anti-Christian faith. A law order that allows for all sorts of abominations. But I want you to pay attention. It does not allow for the Lordship of Jesus Christ. They don't care if you worship a banana or a banana slug. They don't care if you have seances and worship Satan. There was a satanic group in Detroit, Michigan, just to offend the Christians and to show how the USS Freedom of Religion, they made a giant statue of Satan and they worshiped it openly just because they knew it would tick off the Christians. Well, that's all legal. That's fully legal. Our nation does not allow for the Lordship of Christ over the courts, over the schools, over the colleges, over the universities, over the Senate, over the Congress, over the Supreme Court. No Lordship of Christ. Secular humanism rules the roost. That's true, nobody can deny that. The Nazi state was the product of the findings of Western science, macroevolutionary theory, eugenics, coupled with occult mysticism. Such thinking led to the judgment of Europe, especially Germany and the Soviet Union. Estimates range from 25 to 27 million died in the Soviet Union. Germany was only something like 10 million, which is a lot of people. U.S., 450,000. And of course, that includes the Pacific Front. We need to reject the whole idea of natural laws, an independent source of ethics, and stand fast upon the sacred scriptures. Isaiah 820, to the law and to the testimony. If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. In Isaiah 19, the prophet says that God will judge Egypt for its idolatry. Listen to this. This is a nation outside of Israel. The burden against Egypt, behold, the Lord rides on a swift cloud and will come into Egypt. The idols of Egypt will totter at his presence and the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst. It's Isaiah 19.1. Here's what Delish writes. Jehovah rides upon clouds when he's about to reveal himself in his judicial majesty, Psalm 38.11. And in this instance, he rides upon a light cloud. some translations have swift cloud, because it will take place rapidly. The idols of Egypt shake because Jehovah comes over them in judgment. And then he's got here, see Exodus 12, 12, Jeremiah, Ezekiel 13. They must shake, for they are about to be thrown down, and their shaking for fear is a shaking to their fall, end of quote. And then here's what Edward J. Young, who taught at Westminster Seminary back when it was worth going to, he writes this, quote, Perhaps neither of these alternatives really gets at the heart of the matter. Isaiah nowhere suggests that idols have a real presence. They are dumb idols, mere statues, and cannot do those things that a god should do. Nothing in the book of Isaiah would lead to the conclusion that the prophet believed in the existence of real gods apart from the one true god. On the other hand, it will not do to say that the prophet is merely engaging in ridicule. Rather, he is using poetic language to express the thought that the coming of the Lord means the complete destruction of the idols. For this reason, he represents them as acting as though they were alive. Jeremiah later describes the destruction of the idols in more prosaic fashion. See Jeremiah 43, 12, and 13, 46, 25, Ezekiel 30, 13, end of quote. God reveals the causes of Egypt's discord and calamities. The chief cause is their idolatry and their trusted false gods in false forms of revelation. 19.1-4. It's Isaiah 19.1-4. Jehovah makes their false gods, mocks their false gods. He promises to destroy them. and he reveals his anger against their trust in idols, charmers, mediums, and sorcerers, verse three. Egypt's false gods cannot hold society together or bring peace and prosperity. Still war and societal chaos is coming to Egypt because their false religious foundation is false, it is evil, it is an abomination. The complex polytheisms of their society led them to false sources of rule and wisdom, verses 11 to 13. Well, didn't Isaiah know that Egypt was under the covenant of Noah and that the first table offenses were no longer God's concern among non-Israelite societies and nations in history? Didn't he know that? Is this a mistake on Isaiah's part? Well, apparently not. Rather than focusing on second table offenses, which is what one would expect if he accepted Van Drew and its paradigm, God focuses on the source of Egypt's problems and depravity and wickedness. False revelation, false wisdom, foolish wicked politicians, tyrannical leaders, their false religion, their idolatry, that's the foundation and source of their problems. This passage alone refutes Van Druin's whole paradigm. According to God's infallible word, Those who worship idols and found their societies on false religions cannot expect a blessed society. They should expect tyranny and judgment sooner or later. Yeah, God's merciful. God's long-suffering. But it's gonna happen. The United States will not be exempt. Europe will not be exempt. Canada will not be exempt. Australia, New Zealand will not be exempt. It will come. There are other serious problems related to Isaiah 19 for Vanderbilt and its pluralistic second table only paradigm. Looking to the New Covenant era in prophecy, God speaks at a time when the Egyptian nation will make a covenant with the Lord of hosts, verse 18. They will turn to Jesus as Lord and Savior, verse 20. They will vow a vow unto the Lord and perform it, verse 21. In other words, as a society, they're going to covenant with the one true God. Egypt will be blessed and will be called they'll be blessed by Jehovah, will be called my people, covenant language, verse 25. And not only will the Egyptians worship God openly, verses 18 and 19, not only will they experience God's patience and mercy, verse 20. but they will come to that experiential knowledge of him that is the ultimate goal of all relationships with him. Jeremiah 9.23-25, Hosea 4.1, Hosea 13.4-5, Philippians 3.10, Isaiah 1.3 and 45.10 and 45.3 and 60 verse 16. Now according to Van Drunen, A nation that covenants with Christ, adopts the true Christian religion, and implements biblical law, that is the moral laws in the Bible that are defined as crimes, you know, rape, sodomy, bestiality, fraud, those kind of things, second degree murder, manslaughter. According to Van Drunen, to do what's described here about Egypt in the New Covenant era, that would be forbidden by the Noahic Covenant. That would be wrong. That would be an implementation of first table laws. It would be totally wrong to covenant with God. According to Van Drunen, it would be immoral and sinful for the civil magistrate to adopt biblical Christianity as the official religion of society. Scripture, however, strongly disagrees with Van Drunen. It's a pluralistic fantasy. Psalm 2228, for the kingdom is the Lord's. He is the governor among the nations. Psalm 144.15, happy is that people. that is in such a case, yea, happy is that people whose God is Jehovah, whose God is the Lord. Psalm 2, 10, 11, and 12. O kings, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you perish in the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Now, Van Drunen contradicts that. Van Drunen says, no, no, no, his job, just second table stuff. God's not concerned with the first table after the Noahic Covenant. And here's a messianic psalm, one of the best, very specific. If civil magistrates don't bow the knee to Christ, if they don't kiss the sun, pay him homage and worship, render him to do that as his due, as the ascended, resurrected, glorified Lord over all. They don't do that. They face judgment. Sooner or later, that country will face judgment. And then here's another one. Psalm 110, one, two, five, and six. The Lord, Jehovah, said to my Lord, Jesus Christ, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of your enemies. The Lord is at your right hand. He shall execute kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the nations. He shall fill the places with dead bodies. He shall execute the heads of many countries. That's amazing. Christ is king now. Christ is ruling in history. The prophet Jeremiah says that God will bring judgment upon Egypt, Pharaoh, and their false gods. Jeremiah 46.25. When you get a chance, look at Isaiah 46.1. Behold, I will bring punishment on Ammon, that's the sun god, of Noah, that's ancient Thebes, and Pharaoh and Egypt and their gods, and their kings, Pharaoh, and those who trusted him. Okay, they make the Pharaoh into a god. In Israel's history, Ammon was at a certain point in time merged with Re to become Ammon-Re, the king of the gods. He was the king of Egypt's pharaohs. Pharaoh claimed to be divine and also the revelator of the gods. God condemns the wicked and he condemns the source of their wickedness, their false gods. They're destroyed along with the objects of their trust and their devotion. If the Noach Covenant was designed to establish a world of common grace, pluralism, where freedom of religion was guaranteed to all, this prophecy would be inappropriate. It'd be wrong. If Van Der Nidt's paradigm is true, this prophecy would be impossible. Why would God be judging them for their idolatry? Why would God be judging them for their false religions? It ought to be obvious by now that Jehovah has not suspended the first table of the law. He has not suspended the first and second commandments until the second coming of Christ. That's simply a fantasy of Van Drunen's. Here's what Calvin says. Quote, we know that that land was very much given to superstitions. that the Egyptians had imbibed gross and shameful errors. God had smitten them with madness. So they were to become almost like brute beasts. Besides, as they thought that they had perfect safety in their idols, the prophet shakes off this confidence and declares that God would not only be the judge of men, but also of the idols. For we know that men strengthen themselves against God's threatenings, either by superstition or by confidence in their own strength. As long as they depend on the world, they gather from all quarters some grounds of hope, and hence it is that they think that they will be safe, though in opposition to God's will. The prophet beats down this folly when he says, behold, I will visit the multitude of Alexandria, and adds, I will visit the gods of Egypt. End of quote. So clearly, Yahweh, Jehovah, the true and living God, hates all forms of idolatry. He hates religious pluralism. He hates false forms of revelation. He hates Mormonism. He hates Roman Catholicism. He hates Buddhism. He hates Islam with a holy hatred. Thus he says to Assyria, and here's another one, this is Isaiah 10, 5, 10, and 11. Here's Assyria, it's not Israel, it's not Israel, it's outside of Israel. Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger and the staff in whose hand is my indignation, as my hand has found the kingdom of their idols, whose carved images excel those of Jerusalem and Samaria, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, Shall I not do also to Jerusalem and her idols? Isaiah 10, 5, 10, and 11. God also proclaimed judging as Moab for idolatry. Jeremiah 48, 35. Moreover, says the Lord, I will cause to cease in Moab the one who offers sacrifices in high places and burns incense to his gods. Jehovah will crush the idols of Babylon. Here's Jeremiah 51, two and 38. Babylon is taken, Baal is shamed, that's a god. Meradoc, or Marduk, a Babylonian god, is broken in pieces. Her idols are humiliated. Her images are broken in pieces. A drought is against her waters, and they will be dried up, for it is the land of carved images, and they are insane with their idols. Now, that's outside of Israel. God judged them for their idolatry. Here's Jeremiah 51, 17, 18, 47, and 52. Here's another one. Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge. Every middle-smith is put to shame by the carved image, for his molded image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. They are futile, a work of errors. In the time of their punishment, they shall perish. Therefore, behold, the days are coming that I will bring judgment on the carved images of Babylon. Her whole land shall be ashamed, and all her slain shall fall in her midst. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will bring judgment on her carved images. Throughout all her land, the wounded shall groan. So when Babylon is conquered and people are slaughtered, one of the main reasons, God says, is I'm doing this to you because of your idolatry. When somebody from Edo Persia comes and they sticks a sword in your side and you're laying there dying, I want you to know it's because of your idolatry that I'm doing this to you. Now, does that sound like pluralism to you? Does that sound like the Noahic Covenant teaches pluralism in all the nations outside of Israel and for the whole world? No. It's an unbiblical fantasy made to justify the United States Constitution and the wicked pluralism that's practiced today in the United States. Now, even if you believe the United States Constitution is a Christian document, now it's the best constitution ever written, I don't get that wrong, except for Christian ones, but even if you believe it's a Christian constitution, it's being interpreted in a way of complete pluralism. And I know Whitehead and Greg Bonson and others, they think it teaches Christian pluralism, that we should have Christian, but it's not explicit. And in my book on covenanting, I have quotes from people back then, when it was written, who admitted that if people want a Mohammedan, if they want a Muslim, they'll get a Muslim. If they want an atheist, they'll get an atheist. They admitted that back then. So as much as I respect Whitehead and Greg Vonson and Rush Dooney, who all are big Constitution people, it doesn't support, if you go back to the original sources, it doesn't support this idea that they were establishing a Christian pluralism. I wish they were, but they weren't. The identity of the covenant has superseded the first commandment for all nations in history. For God is now only concerned with interpersonal human relationships. It's so obviously unscriptural. It is astounding that anyone would advocate or believe such nonsense. Remember, Van Duren's whole paradigm is based on the interpretation that with the Noahic Covenant, God no longer brings judgments against nations outside of Israel and the church for idolatry and religious infractions. That's off limits according to his view of natural law. All such things are still wicked and sinful, he'll admit that. He even admits that the second table infractions all flow out of idolatry, he admits that. But they only will be punished at the final judgment, that's his view. God doesn't deal with these things in history. This interpretation is then used to argue that God does not want any non-Israelite nation to have laws punishing or discouraging idolatry or false religions, or that encourage the true Christian religion. Since the Noahic Covenant is a covenant of preservation that applies to both believers and unbelievers, Van Drounen, based on an argument from silence, jumps to the incredible conclusion that all laws in the Bible dealing with idolatry and religion are off-limits to all nations. Thus they are limited to the Christian Church. But even the Church must take the moral laws in the Mosaic Code with a large grain of salt, for they are tainted, because they were given to Old Testament Israel, not the Church of Christ. And he teaches that the way to judge the Mosaic Law is to study natural law, and then use this natural law, which you gain autonomous knowledge through, and then you use that to judge biblical law, which is, he's got it backwards. One must use natural law to judge the law revealed in special revelation. But we have seen that God hated and judged the idolatry of the Assyrians, Moabites, Egyptians, Babylonians, and the inhabitants of Canaan. Only one example would disprove Van Dronen's theory, but there are several examples. And in his book he says it probably at least four or five times that God never judged any nation for idolatry outside of Israel. He says it many times. He repeats it in the conclusion of his book. That's just flat out inaccurate. It's flat out wrong. Now that God judges nations for idolatry makes perfect sense when we consider that, number one, all moral and natural laws flow from God's nature and character and thus cannot be abrogated. for God to say, hey, idolatry's cool with me. Yeah, I'll deal with it later, but it's cool with me. I'll wait till the final judgment. It contradicts God's nature and character. Number two, violations of the first table are the foundation of the cause of violations of the second table. And this explains why, in many cases, God destroys not only the political leaders, but also their false gods. God is saying, I hate the way you treat people, obviously, I hate your chattel slavery, I hate this and I hate that, but here's the source of it, your idolatry, your worship of your leader. And then three, sinful pride, human autonomy, and a hatred of God are always tied to idolatry in scripture. Romans 1, 18 and following. What may be known of God is revealed in nature, and men are, responsible to serve and worship the true God. But all men, not just some, but all men, unless you're raised a Christian or something, suppress that truth in unrighteousness and create idols. And then Paul goes on to explain after 125 how God's turned them over to homosexuality, lesbianism, and all these perverse activities as a judgment for their idolatry. Idolatry is the source Number four, Paul writing after the death and resurrection of Christ speaks of God judging men for idolatry by giving them over to slavery or bondage to all sorts of perversions and serious sins. We just mentioned that, Romans 124 and following. So there are still sanctions in history in the new covenant era against idolatry. Therefore, to allow idolatry in the public square is to invite the judgment of God on society. Even if you say, well, God doesn't judge nations directly for idolatry. Well, he judges nations for the consequence of idolatry. Therefore, idolatry needs to be punished. You see, this whole argument, this whole dividing up the law artificially and trying to keep the first table of the law out of society. It doesn't work theologically, it doesn't work exegetically, it doesn't work logically, and it doesn't even work practically, because if you allow witchcraft and Satanism and idolatry and all these things, you're gonna have all these serious other crimes. And then five, Van Drunen's position requires civil magistrates to assume a position of neutrality with respect to religion, which is impossible. How do you have a state that doesn't take an interest in religion and have that state be a biblical state? or a state that's just. How do you do that? Well, the United States has tried it. Now, in the early years of the United States, when everybody acted and thought like a Christian, they thought according to the Christian world and life view, things functioned quite well. But, as people become more epistemologically self-aware and they become more consistent with evolution and unbelieving science and all these kind of things, our society has degenerated greatly. And, I mean, Chicago, South Chicago, you want to walk around South Chicago at night? It's like Lebanon used to be in the 80s. It's dangerous. He requires civil magistrates to assume a position of neutrality with respect to religion, which is actually impossible. How could a civil magistrate who's a Christian treat the true Christian religion with indifference as if it was no different than Islam, Satanism, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Buddhism? How could he treat it the same and sleep at night and pray to God and say, I've done a good job today? How could he do that? Every nation in history that has attempted to be neutral with respect to religion has failed. has ended up with some form of secular humanism that is hostile to the kingship of Christ, biblical Christianity, and a Christian law order. Attempts to be secular divinize the state and make the state the determiner of law, meaning, and ethics, not God. They divinize the state and they cause people to worship the state instead of Jesus Christ. One is either for Christ or against him. Does Van Drunen really believe that due to the Noahic Covenant, Christian civil magistrates must not confess Christ before men? Matthew 10, 32 to 33. Would it be wrong for Christians to support candidates or civil rulers who want to honor Jesus Christ publicly and implement the resurrected Lord's own laws? Would that be wrong? Well, according to Van Drunen, it would be. or due to the Noahic Covenant, must we support atheists, secular humanists, or professing Christians who refuse to apply their faith in Christ or the Bible to their calling in life, to society around them? If Satan wanted to devise a perverted, retreatist version of Christianity that hands culture and society over to atheists and infidels, could he have done a better job than Van Drunen? Could he have done a more clever or subtle job than Van Drunen? I don't think so. And the Christians, you know, Christian companies publish this stuff, and people buy this and read this and think this is profound stuff. When it's garbage, it's beyond me. In Habakkuk 2.18-19, let me read it to you. What profit is the image that its maker should carve it? The molded image, a teacher of lies, that the maker of its mold should trust in it to make mute idols. Woe to him who says to wood, awake, to silent stone, arise, it shall teach, because it is overlaid with gold and silver. Yet in it there is no breath at all, but the Lord is in his holy temple. Now listen to this. Let all the earth, let the entire earth keep silence before Him. Not just Israel. The whole earth is to worship the one true God. That's a command. That's a requirement of scripture. In Habakkuk 2.18-19, God proclaims a woe of judgment upon idolaters outside of Israel, the Chaldeans. Not only is the absurdity of idolatry pointed out and condemned by the proclamation of woe, But the whole earth, verse 20, is commanded to be in awe and reverence before Jehovah. It is the duty of men to recognize Him as God, to trust in Him as God, to adore Him as God, to worship Him as God, to reverence Him. Zechariah 2.13, be still and know that I am God. Those who commit idolatry are fools who exalt some aspect of the lower creation, which is below themselves to be above God himself. What wickedness. To make idols, to trust idols, and to serve idols is the sin of sins and the fountain of all iniquity. Therefore, Jehovah orders the whole earth to be silent before him. Now silence in this context indicates a reverence for God's infinite majesty and his authority. And now that Jesus has conquered Satan, sin and death and established the judicial foundation of a new creation, all men everywhere throughout the entire earth are morally obligated to recognize him as Lord Christ and the son of the living God. God commands all men everywhere to repent. Psalm 2, Psalm 22, Psalm 110, Matthew 28, 18 to 20, Acts 2, 33 to 36, Acts 17, 30 to 31, 1 Corinthians 15, 25 to 28, Ephesians 1, 20 to 23, Philippians 2, 9 to 11, Revelations 1, 5, Revelations 6, 15 to 17, 15, 3 to 4, 19, 11 to 16, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. The Bible's clear in this matter. Christ is Lord. He's risen from the dead. He's achieved a victory, and you are to bow the knee to Him. not Mohammed, not Krishna, not Joseph Smith, but Jesus Christ. Van Drunen attempts to circumvent this passage and others like it by saying this, this is from 165 to 166 footnote number one, quote, the Chaldeans idolatry is hardly the center of attention which in previous verses is their arrogance and violence. 1 5 to 11 and 2 6 to 17. Their most prominent sin here is not that they worship idols, but themselves. See, especially 1 11. Okay, let me stop for a second. What is worshiping yourself? It's idolatry. You don't have to worship a statue. You can worship a Corvette. You can worship a woman. There are many things that you can worship besides a statue. Their most prominent sin here is not that they worship idols, but themselves, see especially 111. Other texts of the prophetic oracles refer to the nation's idols, to be sure, but none of them actually condemn the nations because they worship them. End of quote. This footnote is noteworthy because it reveals how one's faulty presuppositions can twist one's exegesis and application of scripture. That's why you can have a commentary written by somebody whose knowledge of Greek or Hebrew is just incredible. Just amazing knowledge of the languages. Yet they may be an Arminian, and they may attend some terrible Arminian church, and the commentary's gonna be mediocre and be full of mistakes because their presuppositions get in the way of proper exegesis. His grasping at straw must be rejected for the following reasons. Number one, When God pronounces a woe against idolatry, uses coming and judgment language against it, that is a coming on the cloud or a coming on the clouds, and speaks of toppling or destroying idols in a number of passages, one cannot ignore such passages or explain them away. Clearly then, clearly, God hates and judges idolatry in nations outside of Israel and the promised land. They do. There is no way to circumvent this historical reality. It totally disproves Van Drunen's and all pluralists' paradigm, and thus cannot be admitted by the pluralists. They just can't admit it. Once you admit that, you've got to say, hey, our nation needs to bow to the unity of Christ. We need to have laws against public idolatry. We need to have laws against the public propagation of false religions. But people aren't willing to admit that because they're so perverted by our worldview or modern way of thinking. the modern Zitgeist. They're so perverted by that, they don't want to hear the scriptures. So it totally disproves Van Duren's all-pluralist paradigm, and thus cannot be admitted by the pluralists. Scripture must be twisted instead. Number two, all idolatry is, in a sense, a worshiping of self, because idolatry is always the religious conclusion to human autonomy. That's what Romans 1, 18 and following teaches. They knew the true God, revealed of him in nature, and they suppressed that knowledge. And in the suppression of that knowledge and unrighteousness, they immediately create idols. The Bible repeatedly points out that idols are man's creation. Men create finite gods in their own image that they can control and that allow them to continue in sin. The Greek and Roman gods did all sorts of immoral things. They were like, you know, Marvel characters except more evil. Human autonomy is always connected to idolatry and political tyranny because one leads directly to the other. They are organically related. They cannot be arbitrarily separated as pluralists attempt to do. Number three, the second table sins of violence and sexual perversion so often condemned by the prophets flow from idolatry and are intimately connected with false religion. You know, during World War II, the most dedicated fighters, you know, they would fight to the death in 99% of the opportunities, 99.5%, something like that, were the Japanese, because they wanted to die for the emperor. They wanted to die for the emperor, their god. They worshipped him as a god. The attempt to separate the two tables of the law into self-contained categories does not work. It doesn't work. Wickedness flows from godlessness. The second table rests upon the first table of the law. Paul describes all sorts of aggravated sins and gross immoralities as flowing directly from idolatry, Romans 1.22-32. The whole idea that a nation will be moral, sound, just, and fair, while rejecting God, Jesus Christ and the Bible, because God promised not to drown the whole world with water, or destroy it until the consummation, is simply ludicrous. Now you're walking down the street in Chicago, in the middle of the night, it's two in the morning, it's dark, there's no full moon. On this side of the street, you have a group of young African-American men, come from bad homes, no fathers, and they're all armed to the teeth, and they're all drug dealers. And then on the other side of the street, you got a group of Christians, Bible-believing Christians. They just came from a prayer meeting. What side of the street do you wanna be on? This idea that you can separate the second table from the first table. It's just ludicrous, it's insanity. If the left in our nation ever gets complete control, this is the Democratic Party, this is what it's become, they will eventually outlaw gospel preaching as hate speech. They really would. And they will attempt to shut down Bible-believing churches because they're anti-homosexual, and that's hate speech. The idea that attempts, that all societies, a society's ethics can be neutral and pluralistic with respect to religion ignores the fact that all ethical questions ultimately are religious at a foundational level. When speaking of good and evil and the what that is required, immediately comes the question regarding the why behind behavior, why? Now, if you tell me that we evolved from pond scum and I should be a good person because the state tells me I must be a good person, and that's purely arbitrary, and there is no eternal consequences to my behavior, who cares? I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm just going to be careful about getting caught. That's just a reality. There has to be a why. If we all evolved from pond scum, and the whole world will end in the oblivion of a supernova someday. Why should men not lie, steal, commit adultery, fornicate, and live out a selfish, hedonistic, narcissistic existence? Why not? Why should people go through all the sacrifices of having a family when they can have much more fun and a higher standard of living by not having a family or not having any children? And young people are figuring that out. The Bible teaches. Now, we know that it's rewarding. We know that it's a blessing. But if you don't have the Bible, you don't know that. Some people think it, but increasingly, we're not even replacing our own populations in Europe and Canada and New Zealand in these places. Natural law, apart from special revelation, cannot answer these questions. All that Van Dronen can do in this regard is offer a pragmatic, utilitarian argument. Well, the problems teach that bad things happen to wicked people, and we're supposed to figure that out. Well, somebody who's logical can think, well, that guy was just a bad thief. Or this guy was very sloppy in the way he committed adultery. There've been men who've committed adultery for 30, 40 years and their wives never found out. They were very careful. You see, you have to have transcendent law. You have to have absolutes for really to restrain society. But the teaching of Proverbs is not that we derive our ethics from nature. but that in a God-created personalistic universe, judgments come upon the wicked and blessings come upon the righteous. Sanctions and blessings are connected to how we live in relation to God's revealed moral law. That's what Proverbs teaches. The wicked suffer because an all-righteous and holy God controls the universe. Precisely because there can be no religious epistemological or ethical neutrality. We must all do everything we can to develop a Christian civilization, an explicitly Christian nation with Christian laws. Another explicit condemnation of idolatry outside of Israel is found in Daniel 5, 23 to 28 and 30. And you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. They have brought the vessels of the house of God before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which you do not see, hear, or know. And the God who holds your breath in his hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified. Then the fingers of the hand were sent from him. hymns capitalized from God. And this writing was written, mene, mene, tekel, upashin, which in the inscription of each word, mene, God has numbered your kingdom and finished it. Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Perez, your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians. That very night, Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain. The king profaned the vessels of the sanctuary, which is an insult toward Jehovah and the true religion. And he praised his own false gods, which cannot hear or see, thus preferring them over the one true God, the living God, who knows everything, who controls everything, is in charge of everything. His mockery toward God arose from his pride. His mockery of the temple and its vessels flowed from his heathen world and life view, his idolatry. His judgment was twofold. He was murdered that very night, and his kingdom was conquered and taken over by others. Pretty severe judgment, about the worst you could think. The idolatry of the king not only resulted in his own death, but the judgment of his nation. God did not ignore the first commandment due to the Noahic covenant, but put the king to death, and he brought slaughter to his armies and his peoples. Now, Van Drunen, this is one verse he actually speaks about. He attempts to circumvent the obvious implication of this passage when he says this. This is from page 201. Belshazzar did not commit three separate sins, but one threefold sin. In a drunken stupor, he defiles the vessels of God's temple, using them for the worship of idols and not honoring the God whose vessels they are. And then listen to this ridiculous conclusion. Idolatry per se is not the charge. Dishonoring the Lord in wanton hubris by using his holy things for pagan worship, that is the ground of Belshazzar's judgment. End of quote. Now the idea that idolatry was not the issue but rather only using holy things for pagan worship is absurd and contrary to the plain meaning of verse 23. His primary sin was that he despised the true and living God and refused to glorify him as God. The indecent sacrilege was a symptom of his idolatry. What is more sinful, defiling the vessels of the temple, anointed by positive command, appointed by positive command, or refusing to honor and serve the true God and worshiping idols instead. You see the degree to which van Droonen is willing to pervert scripture to justify his unscriptural pluralism. Edward J. Young writes this, quote, note the force of the verse as seen in the contrast between the gods and the God at the beginning of each clause, and thou hast praised and thou hast not glorified at the conclusion of each clause. These words well illustrate the folly of any way of life which is not founded upon true theism. For all idols, whether they be of wood or stone, the creation of man's hands, or finely spun philosophies, the creation of man's minds, cannot see, nor hear, nor know. Unbelief is folly." End of quote. In addition, Van Dernan's refusal to acknowledge the condemnation of the king's idolatry in favor of only indecent sacrilege, still contradicts his paradigm. For sacrilege against Jehovah is a first table offense. He doesn't even understand that. According to his paradigm, it wouldn't be wrong at all to do that. It wouldn't be a crime at least. And God wouldn't judge that, because that's a religious crime. So he's grasping at straw here. If the Noahic Covenant allowed civil magistrates to legalize and practice idolatry, as well as public blasphemy, witchcraft, sorcery, et cetera, why would sacrilege be forbidden? Witchcraft is sacrilege. Sorcery is sacrilege. Van Drunen simply will not accept the plain teaching of any passage that disprove this pluralistic paradigm. If God is angry with Belshazzar, a civil magistrate for religious practices, then civil magistrates in nations outside of Israel should shun false religious practices. And they should embrace Jehovah, the true and living God, through Jesus Christ his son. God has spoken clearly in scripture against polytheism and pluralism. Are we going to submit to the Bible or are we going to make excuses for cultural surrender? Civil magistrates are obligated to honor the true God as creator, preserver, owner, ruler, and savior. They must devote themselves to serving and pleasing Jesus Christ. Any other position involves pride, human autonomy, idolatry, and forms of sacrilege. John Gill, the great Baptist commentator, a good Calvinist, a good Psalm singer, says that Belshazzar was proclaimed guilty of not owning God as the only true God, of not ascribing that all that he had came from God, or not giving Jehovah due worship and adoration and honor. He was guilty of setting up his idol gods above him and thus treating him and everything belonging to him with ignominy and contempt. So the gross idolatry was the root, and the sacrilege was the fruit. There are three closely related sins described, pride, or arrogance, which flows from a position of autonomy and self-exaltation, sacrilege, or profaning sacred vessels, and idolatry. There's three separate sins. Yes, they're all intimately related, but there's three sins here, unbiblical pride, the love of human autonomy, sacrilege of sacred vessels, idolatry, not honoring God as a true God. Those are three separate sins. Are they intimately connected? Yes. Are they intimately related? Yes. Does one flow from the other? Yes. But we can't avoid the fact that the judgment came from religious infractions. We have another example of God's hatred of idolatry by his judgment of King Herod and King Herod's actions in Acts 12, 21 to 23. So on a set day, Herod arrayed and fine apparel sat on his throne and gave an oration to them. And the people kept shouting, the voice of a God, not of a man. Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give glory to God and he was eaten by worms and died. And if you read Josephus, his death was horrifying. His body stunk, he had worms in his, His testicles were infected, all sorts of disgusting things happened to him. Jehovah sent a swift and strong judgment upon Herod for not giving God glory due unto him. Now Herod ruled on behalf of Rome, a pagan state, and his audience at this time were pagan idolaters who were used to deifying Roman emperors. God's judgment against him was visible and horrible. Herod allowed pagan idolaters to make a pagan god out of him. And he paid for it by a horrifying death. He was killed because he refused to rebuke the people's deification of the state. So we've seen, and I could go on and on. One lecture's enough. this idea that, well, you know, if you look at the prophets, it's really interesting that, you know, God condemns violence, interhuman violence, and he judges nations for that, but God doesn't judge nations for idolatry. That is downright false, clearly false, easily disprovable. Well, what are the implications of this for the United States of America? What are the implications of this for today? Brethren, beloved, We have to work for a Christian constitution. We have to work for a national covenant, which recognizes Jesus Christ. We have to work to implement biblical law and apply it to today's society. Anything that's moral and content. even first table laws, should be applied to society. Now this doesn't forbid unbelief, it doesn't forbid other religions held privately. It forbids the public advocation of idolatry and false religions. It forbids public blasphemy. And you wanna have a Christian society, and you wanna do everything you can to suppress false religions according to the parameters laid out in the law of God, and you wanna do everything you can to promote the true religion. Now, the state is promoting their religion today. The public school system is essentially the state religion. It's advocating the state religion, which is evolution, secular humanism, sodomite rights, cross-dressing. All these perversions are taught in the public school system. That is the new establishment of the state religion, the public school system. Well, the Christian state would abolish the public school system, and it would encourage Christian schools. run by Christian covenant heads in conjunction with the oversight of the local session of the church, the local body of elders. And it would do everything it can to help them, whether grants of land or money obtained in a just war, whatever. But what's going on today is disastrous. And Van Droenen's attempt to justify what's going on today doesn't work. It doesn't work. We have to bow the knee to Christ and acknowledge that he is Lord, not the state. Let us pray. Father, we give you thanks for this incredible teaching of your word, warning us of the dangers of idolatry, warning us of the dangers of seeking revelation outside of your word. You tell us these things, Lord, because you want us to glorify you. We ask, Lord, that you would bend our hearts for the Holy Spirit, cause us to have a deep love of Christ and serve him. for it is through him that we worship you. It is through his atoning work that we can come into your presence and have fellowship with you, for in and of ourselves we're sinners and unworthy. We thank you for the work of Christ. We thank you for that, Lord. We ask that you would give us a love of your law and that we'd learn it and apply it to ourselves, our families, and society.