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January 2019

THE SMITHS OF ZECHARIAH

BY MARTIN G. SELBREDE

I
t’s not without reason Church.” These are quietism (which
that R. J. Rush- degenerates into a mysticism leading
doony’s comments to a “total withdrawal from all things”)
on Zech. 1:18–21 and the “kind of activism that feels a
continue to speak to responsibility for the whole world” that
our era. The passage amounts to playing God, requiring
is addressed to God’s embattled flock, perpetual vigilance to prevent the world
surrounded on all sides by enemies from disintegrating. Both evils involve
(the “four horns” of verse 18) intent on the individual in identifying themselves
scattering her. God’s people “had begun as God (either in ceaseless action or in
their task of reconstruction,” but “their transcendent unconcern), which Rush-
efforts at reconstruction seemed feeble doony illustrates.
… and they were deeply discouraged The activist believes “the world will
… As they turned from one side to the not function if they do not keep up
other they saw only hostility” for “they their perpetual concern, their perpetual
were totally encircled by enemies. They activism. Such activism is, of course,
were a handful, some 40,000 against playing at being God. It is wrong and it
millions.” God acknowledges to His is foolish.” We will return to this point
people that “indeed, you are surround- of Rushdoony’s shortly, but we must
ed by power.”1 also note what other commentators
God appoints four smiths or have seen in this vision concerning the
craftsmen, viz., workers in wood, iron,
fraying of the horns, what W. S. Lewis
and stone (rendered “carpenters” in the
calls the peculiar nature and peculiar
KJV) to fray the horns, or as Rush-
instrument of God’s defense against the
doony puts it, to “dehorn every horn.”
horns:
Rushdoony entitled this vision “For
Every Oppressor a Destroyer,” summa- Not other “horns” to push against
these; not other men of war to over-
rizing it thus: “The powers are around
come these; but artificers only, men of
you but God has already appointed
peace.2
the destroyers. Have no fear. Your task,
therefore, awaits you.” God has ap- Lewis suggests that “the best de-
pointed the means for destroying those fence at that time to God’s people” was
hostile to His Kingdom. to be “engaged in building,” and that
Rushdoony prefaces his discus- this is the appointed means for toppling
sion of this vision by pointing out all the horns of the enemy: faithfulness.
the “two great evils that have char- In other words, not by might nor by
acterized human activities in culture power but by what Rushdoony else-
after culture and plague us even in the where called “the spirit-filled men.”3
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 The task of building, of reconstruction, flee from the One who makes “crooked
ultimately voids and breaks the power things straight” (Isa. 42:16).
of God’s enemies. The word translated So they build a crooked world on
“smiths,” charashim, involves skilled a dark, crooked foundation, a world
work done quietly: where they think they’re not confront-
charashim … denotes silent thought or ed by the straight and the true. Small
attention; [in some forms] to contrive, wonder that they can be frayed and
devise … in silence; hence applied as a dehorned by those who merely build
noun to an artificer of any kind, and things straight: the light shines into the
to any work which disposes to silent darkness and can’t be conquered.
attention. Thus, to potter’s wares, Lev. Let’s examine some juxtapositions
6:28; Job 2:8; and in many other plac-
of humanistic counterfeit doctrines and
es. So also to plowing, Deut. 22:10;
Prov. 20:4, which requires constant
the Biblical doctrine they’re trying to
attention to make “the right-lined falsify and subvert.
furrow.” Let it be remembered that in Complicity is the humanistic
ancient times such works were more flipside to Biblical responsibility. An
esteemed than the useless ones we have activist can stir the pot and ask of those
learned to admire.4 who’ve not danced when he or she
We’ll return to these points after piped (Matt. 11:17), “how are you not
we conduct an important survey about complicit?” Everyone is numbered with
“the four horns” as they stand in our the transgressors at the speed of a tweet:
own era, as cultural counterfeits and if you’re not part of the solution, you’re
falsifications of Biblical truths repack- part of the problem (creating an instant
aged to appeal to so-called autonomous but artificial polarization for the cause
man. We shall then understand what célèbre).
the proper response to counterfeit doc- We are awash in the return of
trines, counterfeit confessions, counter- blasphemy, of self-appointed gatekeep-
feit values, needs to be, Zechariah being ers “that make a man an offender for
our guide. a word, and lay a snare for him that
reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the
FOR EVERY BIBLICAL DOCTRINE, just for a thing of nought” (Isa. 29:21).
A HUMANISTIC COUNTERFEIT Offense is taken at every conceivable
Because man is made in God’s thing, and the allowable range of behav-
image, he is fiercely aware of God’s ior is quickly turning into a straitjacket
claim and God’s truth imprinted on with matching muzzle. The whole
his being. In his rebellion against God, world has become one giant third rail.
unregenerate man senses all the “holes” Psalm 119:165 informs us that
left by the various Biblical doctrines his “great peace have they which love thy
humanism requires him to repudiate. law: and nothing shall offend them,”
These holes are filled with humanistic suggesting that faithful Christians
counterparts to the truth, and the doc- should be immune to the cultural
trines which don’t have a humanistic toxins that feed the modern doctrine
reflection are few in number. Because of cultural blasphemy. However, even
modern man dwells in a “refuge of lies” here, Christians have been drawn into
(Isa. 28:15, 17) he avoids confronting fighting in Saul’s armor (because if you
Biblical truths the way Dracula avoids don’t, “how are you not complicit?”).
mirrors, for those in darkness hate Invasive ideologies in search of scape-
the light (John 3:20). If the crooked goats respect no one, as author George
is known by the straight, the crooked R. R. Martin’s frustrated comment
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 about Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings illus- In humanism, it can be a sin to
trates: “What was Aragorn’s tax policy?” even exist, and humanists are not shy to
In fact, the old blasphemies are the propose ways for you to atone for that
new virtues, and the old virtues are now crime. (Sadly, the false package con-
the new blasphemies, as witnessed by taminates any kernel of truth in their
Dr. Susan McClary’s 1987 article, “The original indictments, which should
Blasphemy of Talking Politics during have been dealt with justly in terms of
Bach Year,” in which politics invades Biblical restitution where warranted.)
the domain of music to hijack Christian Job recognized that he entered the
composers like Bach for Marxist ends.5 world naked, but modern man is born
Incidentally, the Oxford Dictio- loaded with guilt and wishes he were
naries Word of the Year for 2018 was in Job’s shoes. For Job, the Lord giveth
the term toxic, while the 2016 winner and the Lord taketh away, but modern
was post-truth. The irony is evident, man holds that the state giveth and the
that a culture for which truth has been state taketh away.
transcended or subverted is certainly a For every Biblical litmus test, there
culture that traffics in toxicity at every are multiple humanistic counterparts.
level, in every relationship, on every Isaiah 8:20 might alert us that “to the
issue. Falsehoods circulate in place law and the testimony: if they speak
of truths, displacing the latter. Wil- not according to this word, it is because
lie Brown pointed out its inexorable there is no light in them,” but today’s
nature: “In politics, a lie unanswered litmus tests proscribe every conceivable
becomes truth within 24 hours.” activity. The Bechdel-Wallace Test,
At this point, things unsaid are which rates works of fiction as rigidly
alleged to be dog whistles, and making as the old motion picture code ruled on
such accusations is a form of virtue sig- the content of film, is but one of many
naling (the way that humanists “make humanistic standards being imposed
broad their phylacteries,” Matt. 23:5). upon every corner of our society. These
constitute even more horns that have
THE CULTURAL DAMAGE INFLICTED arisen to cause God’s people to scatter.
BY COUNTERFEIT “TRUTHS” For the natural use of the body,
Of course, treason has been rede- humanism has boldly substituted and
fined in terms of the state, rather than gloried in the unnatural use of the
in reference to treason against God, as body, reviling St. Paul’s Epistle to the
Dr. Rushdoony had long ago docu- Romans (by implication, and often
mented.6 We’ve since lost sight of the directly). Gender identity now extolls
Biblical archetype, having only known the triumph of the will, glorying in an
the humanistic counterfeit we’ve been autonomy untethered to the Creator.
spoon-fed for decades. Consider, too, Rushdoony’s com-
Rushdoony’s The Cure of Souls ment on the text of Daniel 9:7, where
and The Politics of Guilt and Pity both he juxtaposes Daniel’s confession of
delineate the nature of false doctrines of “confusion of face” with humanism’s
atonement (various forms of self-atone- opposing counterfeit doctrine:
ment promoted within humanism).
The expression, “confusion of faces,” is
The true atonement liberates men to a significant one. It is the confession of
responsible action, but false atone- a godly man, and the beginning of his
ments enslave men because they cannot power. Moralism is not characterized
actually atone for man’s sins (real or by any such recognition, but rather by
engineered). a confidence of faces, a self-righteous-

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 ness which assumes that history is here and now, in this world. All scores
controlled by morality and works of must be settled in this life, not in some
morality. Thus, love is assumed to be world to come. Once you legislate the
capable of regenerating and controlling terms of utopia, you must enforce the
men, nations, and history.7
terms, and the cost is astronomic. The
This confidence of faces reverses domain of coercion must grow without
the object of zeal: God’s people are to limit because utopias don’t happen by
be consumed with zeal for the Lord’s chance but by force.
house, but humanistic social justice God’s law undergirds a liberty that
warriors are consumed with zeal for abides. “I shall walk in a wide place, for
their empires of dirt and their towers of I have sought thy precepts” (Ps. 119:45,
Babel. ESV). When counterfeit doctrines
Zeal is intrinsic to man (even if it prevail, however, man walks in an
has degenerated into a mere zeal for ever-shrinking space as the self-inflicted
one’s own comfort), but under human- snare tightens around him. This is the
ism zeal is misdirected to goals consis- curse that marks “the man who trusts
tent with the sentiment that “we have in man, who makes flesh his strength”
no God but Caesar.” Consequently, the (Jer. 17:5). “Surely Thou has set them
doctrine of infallibility is likewise coun- in slippery places” (Ps. 73:18) and it is
terfeited by humanism, which holds equally certain that “their foot shall slip
that man speaks the infallible word, not in due season (Deut. 32:35).
God.
And whereas man under God THE TRIUMPH OF THE SMITHS
is driven by duty, man without God The kingdom of man is a fragile
is driven by guilt. A host of cultural one. Apart from the internal tensions
pathologies inevitably radiate from this that war within it, it has another Oppo-
fact, for guilty men are enslaved men. nent at hand. Humanists rightly fear
those who build up the unshakeable
FURTHER REPERCUSSIONS OF BEING Kingdom that cannot be moved (Heb.
FLOODED WITH COUNTERFEITS 12:28), for their kingdom, consciously
Humanistic counterfeits are always built upon the sand, will fall. And all
coercive and decrease liberty. They’re their angst and adrenaline is bent upon
otherwise unsustainable. This requires postponing that fall: it is humanists,
all humanists to be “sons of thunder” in not Christians, who have every reason
principle. Unlike Christians who look to adopt a bunker mentality. Human-
for a city made without hands, human- ism suffers the same futility as did the
ists are focused on the city made with fictional Grinch (who discovered he
hands, which inverts the question of couldn’t stop Christmas despite taking
accountability. draconian measures to do so).
If you’re accountable to God under Isaiah 42:3 says of the Messiah
His law, most offenses and transgres- that He will bring forth justice unto
sions have no temporal punishment truth. Further, “He shall not fail nor
assigned to them: God judges those be discouraged until He has set justice
infractions directly, either through His in the earth, and the isles shall wait for
providential government or at the Final His law” (verse 4). Jesus Christ modi-
Judgment. fies Isaiah’s prophecy slightly in Matt.
But if you’re accountable to man as 12:20, teaching that He shall send
the highest authority, all punishment forth “justice to victory,” where victory
must be immanent, must be inflicted stands in for truth. As J. A. Alexander
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 observes, “the end in question is to be lies” predicted in Isaiah 32 will follow
accomplished not by clamor, not by as we’re faithful to the truth and obedi-
violence, but by the truth.”8 ent to His law.
This fact has two aspects: how the It is men of peace, disposed to
victory is not to be won, and how it will works requiring silent attention,
be won. Consistent with Zech. 4:6, it building the foundations of many gen-
will not be by clamor, let alone vio- erations, who will prevail. This is not
lence. Rather, God’s truth as lived out the quietism that Rushdoony warned
and witnessed by His people as they against (which is disengaged from the
“raise up the foundations of many gen- world in mystical aloofness) nor is it
erations” (Isa. 58:12) will prevail. Every the wrong-headed activism that pulls so
false counterfeit dogma (we’ve listed a many into its frenetic orbit.
few samples above) will be exposed for This is what Christian recon-
their fatal weakness: that “there is no struction is all about: the leveling of
light in them” (Isa. 8:20) and can only mountains into plains (Zech. 4:7)
blind those who cling to them. when we use God’s plumb line to build
We can fill in the blanks here and His Kingdom straight and true (Zech.
assert that all the counterfeits will be 4:10).
put down and replaced by their true
originals: that the falsehoods only hold Martin Selbrede is the Vice-President
sway because men support them, but of the Chalcedon Foundation and is the
they are all on borrowed time with senior researcher for Chalcedon’s ongoing
God. The truth will be triumphant over work of Christian scholarship, along with
the lies, and the men of the lie inca- being the senior editor for Chalcedon’s
pacitate themselves, as Psalm 115:4-8 publications.
teaches: 1. Quotations taken from the second chap-
Their idols are silver and gold, the ter of Dr. R. J. Rushdoony’s commentary
work of human hands. They have on Zechariah, forthcoming.
mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but 2. Spence, H. D. M. and Joseph S. Exell,
do not see. They have ears, but do not ed., The Pulpit Commentary (Grand Rapids,
hear; noses, but do not smell. They MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company,
have hands, but do not feel; feet, but 1950), vol. 14, chapter on Zechariah by W.
do not walk; and they do not make a J. Deane and W. S. Lewis, p. 9.
sound in their throat. Those who make 3. Rushdoony, Rousas John, Exodus (Val-
them become like them; so do all who lecito, CA: Ross House Books, 2004), pp.
trust in them. (ESV) 457–461.
The four horns—the hostile powers 4. Clarke, Adam, Bible Commentary (New
that surround us in all direction—will York, NY: Abingdom Press, n.d.), vol. 4, p.
be frayed by the craftsmen who work 771.
quietly in building His Kingdom of 5. https://chalcedon.edu/magazine/the-day-
peace. “Upon all the glory shall be a the-music-died
defence,” we’re told in Isaiah 4:5, which 6. Rushdoony, Rousas John, Deuteronomy
(Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, 2008),
is to say that our God is a strong tower
pp. 203–210, 253–256.
for those who do His will in the earth.
7. Rushdoony, Rousas John, Thy Kingdom
We are the ones called to be the Come: Studies in Daniel and Revelation
smiths of Zechariah 1:18–21, the (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, [1970]
people who, by quietly building His 2001), p. 64.
Kingdom in the midst of His enemies, 8. Alexander, Joseph Addison, The Prophe-
inevitably fray the powers of cultural cies of Isaiah (Grand Rapids, MI: Zonder-
darkness. The “explosion of all social van, 1978 reprint), part 2, p. 134.

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 ARE YOU PESSIMISTIC
ABOUT THE FUTURE?
BY MARK R. RUSHDOONY

T
he one universal future, we naturally focus on the pres-
sense that comes ent. Many of our problems, whether
with each New personal, social, political, or ecclesiasti-
Year’s Day is the passing cal, have no easy resolution in the short
of time. Though we are term, so we have trouble being confi-
conscious of the passing dent in a positive resolution that may
of a year on a birthday or anniversary, not occur in our lifetime. Our distress
such private remembrances give way at not being able to resolve complex
to public acknowledgement each New problems should cause us to see that
Year. There is a common recognition of their resolution is not going to be
a change to a new calendar year. One entirely, or perhaps not even partially,
of my earliest memories of New Year’s of our doing.
was being shown by an older sibling The changes of history involve a
that the New Year, 1961, was the same multitude of actions. The free market
upside down as right-side up. offers an analogous example. In 1958
Part of our awareness of time is the Leonard Read published an essay called
curse. Time and age lead to the grave. “I, Pencil,” which described what was
We know our time on earth is short. involved in manufacturing a single pen-
Our preoccupation with life’s activities cil. The wood, graphite, ferrule, eraser,
pauses when the calendar reminds us of and paint all had their own complex
time’s passing. supply and manufacturing process, not
Eschatology is a theology of time. It to mention the creation of the machin-
is often defined as the doctrine of end ery used on the final production. Tens
times but I prefer my father’s perspec- of thousands of individuals in many
tive that it is about endings, which countries contributed to the production
emphasizes that there are many endings of a single pencil. In fact, Read noted,
in history, all ordained by God. Closely no one man could produce a single
related is the Scriptural expression “the pencil. It is like that with the course of
day of the Lord,” God’s periodic inter- history. We cannot change the future;
ventions that destroy the presumptions no one man can, so we can wrongly see
of men. Our eschatology, therefore, is it as doomed. But, if we believe God is
how we view the many eschatons (end in control of the very hairs of our head
points) in history. Our days are limited, and every sparrow, we will also believe
but our eschatology sees them in terms that the problems that confound us
of this larger perspective of what God is can easily see resolution, for with God
doing in history. Our eschatology, and nothing is impossible.
its view of the working of God, will There is one cause for pessimism
determine whether our view of future about the future: man, specifically his
history is optimistic or pessimistic. sin and the inevitability of judgment.
Because we cannot see what Yet if we believe that Jesus Christ has
tomorrow brings, much less the distant overcome the world (or sin and death)
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 and that He truly does possess all power sixty-seven million members, over half
in heaven and in earth, then there is a of which are independent Protestants.
victorious future to which judgment The church is also growing in Latin
channels man’s future. Jesus even America and even in Islamic countries.
gave that future in grace a name, the It is easy to note that these churches
Kingdom of Heaven, the most recur- often have problematic theology, but so
ring theme of His ministry (previously did the early church, which spent four
preached by John). The older name centuries debating the incarnation of
for what Jesus called the Kingdom of Jesus in human flesh before [officially]
Heaven was the Messianic Age, the do- settling the issue in A.D. 451 at the
minion of the King of Kings and Lord Council of Chalcedon. We often fail
of Lords. If Jesus Christ conquered sin to see change when it happens. When
and death, then what right have we to the USSR collapsed in the late 1980s,
be pessimistic? there was hesitancy in the conservative
We cannot look at the past to movement to believe it was real. Many
justify a pessimistic view of the King- suggested it was a ruse to catch us off
dom, either. The apostles were given guard.
a seemingly impossible task of taking The Kingdom will advance because
a message about a dead Jew, whose its power is of the Spirit, and not
claims were largely dismissed by His limited by our vision. Our Lord is not
own people, to “all nations.” Yet, by the going to fail. The future is His. “Of the
power of the Holy Spirit that Kingdom increase of his government and peace
advanced and grew, a progress that has there shall be no end … the zeal of the
accelerated in our time. Several years Lord of hosts will perform this” (Isa.
ago, Christianity replaced Islam as the 9:7).
predominant religion of Africa. The Why, then, should any believer in
church in China, which in my youth Jesus Christ be pessimistic about the
still met in secrecy, now includes some future of His Kingdom?

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don Founda- significant ground through helping
tion has served as to restore Christian education, but
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leading ministry by God’s grace, law, and power.
for the message We desperately need your
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is simply the mission of advancing please take a few moments today
the Kingdom of God in every area to prayerfully consider supporting
of life. Chalcedon with your tax-deductible
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