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Drawing on R. J. Rushdoony’s The Foundations of Social Order, this article examines how states weaponise “forgiveness” and sin, warning that only Christ’s grace can truly liberate conscience and restrain tyranny.

I recently finished a book by R. J. Rushdoony titled The Foundations of Social Order. It is a work that focuses on the Ecumenical Councils, with each council’s emphasis in relation to the sphere of the state. It is a great work.

The title of this article, Distinctives of Totalitarian Coercion, is in light of a section in chapter 19 (The Forgiveness of Sin), where if the state were in the position to grant forgiveness of sins, what happens when the state demonstrates forgiving sinners?

The State Cannot Forgive Sin

Rushdoony was very observant. He started this section by stating, 

“Every political attempt to forgive without grace leads only to increased lawlessness and chaos, because forgiveness without salvation is simply a subsidy to sin; it is a condonation of sin which effectually says, ‘Go, and sin some more.’”

What Rushdoony points out is the inability of the state to provide a solution to lawlessness while functioning in its own autonomy. The state, if it indeed claims to be sovereign, will stubbornly seek to be the solution to man’s sin by offering forgiveness with no consideration of the facts.

While the unruly state may view itself to be able to function autonomously, in reality, it can do nothing apart from God’s hand; we are in God’s world, which means we play by God’s rules and His definitions. The state cannot be a saviour because God established it as precisely not that.

There is no removal of sin if the state grants “forgiveness”, in other words, since that is only found in the work of Christ Jesus. To “forgive”, moreover, without the applied grace to cleanse hearts will only result in “increased lawlessness and chaos”. Thus, regeneration is necessary.

“The unregenerate sinner is concerned with forgiveness, but not of sins, but rather the consequences of sin. What the sinner wants dropped is the indictment and the penalty, with freedom granted to continue in his sin.”

The state cannot grant this kind of forgiveness. If it tries, the personified state will be assassinated (as Rushdoony illustrated with Julius Caesar), unless it also provides regeneration: a new heart that desires to not sin, but to please God in living.

Faux Forgiveness and the Rise of Coercion

That said, however, because the state cannot forgive sins, lacking the ability to grant grace or regeneration, they are left to use faux forgiveness and sin as a coercive tool. How would the state use sin for its purposes?

Rushdoony gives three primary points that I will condense.

1. Blackmail.
2. Assumed religion, purely in the self-righteous sense. 
3. Relying on the biblical truth that sinful men are slaves, with the guise of having true liberty.

These three points naturally flow into each other. The state that weaponises sin will (1) blackmail those who are a threat, by (2) relying on the moral consensus of the culture, so that they are at risk of losing their reputation, which will in turn (3) cause the man in sin to suffer shame and guilt, becoming conscience, and driving him to insanity.

Rushdoony puts well here the intention of the evil state, 

“… [The state] must make sin socially reprehensible without liberating men from it.”

The third point is surprisingly anti-Christian, even though they acknowledge man’s sinful condition in this category. Notice that it is through point three that we see the state despising Christianity since Christ alone can actually redeem man from a guilty conscience, and even more, from sin, yet they use it for their conspiracies.

“The power of the state therefore works to promote immorality as though it were a necessary aspect of human liberty, and to destroy Christianity, in order to eliminate the remedy for sin, the relief and healing for an enslaved conscience. Without the liberating power of Christianity, the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ, there is no possibility of overthrowing tyranny.”

To summarise what has been said so far, when the state claims to be sovereign and attempts to liberate man apart from what Christ has done, they will immediately resort to throwing out their professed role as saviour, and put on a new mask where the institution becomes sly and fully prepared to destroy any independence from them.

Opponents of the totalitarian state’s ideals would still presume some benefits from the state despite their own merit, but in turn will become a target or a pawn for tyranny.

Are We As a Nation in This Mess?

Sadly, in avoiding potential blackmail, what institution in Australia today functions and grows apart from the state? One Christian author essentially says that it is only the institutional church that has authorisation apart from the state, which is based on two false assumptions:

1. The assumption that other spheres of society originated from the state.
2. The assumption that all churches are not welfare-functioning churches.

If Christians believe that only the church has valid institutional authorisation apart from the state, then their doctrine of vocation becomes sinful. By that, because by definition the state has its God-given jurisdictions, to argue then that it is ok for the state to stick its fingers in other spheres, whether it be the family, economics, or education, would be advocating for a magistrate that isn’t doing its job as a minister of God, therefore becoming Law-less.

Coercion in itself is not sinful, but lawless coercion is. The state is not in a position to grant forgiveness of sins since it cannot. Yet if it insists, there is no limit to who the state targets to blackmail. Rushdoony explains that forgiveness is judicial by nature and is seen in only two aspects: politically and religiously.

Politically, examples of fair forgiveness against criminals according to scripture are through capital punishment, and some are through restitution. Just forgiveness with religious reference can only be attained through the capital punishment of Christ Jesus through His death if there is any salvation for sinners.

Christ’s Authority Over Every Throne

Rushdoony again says it well, 

“Where there is no forgiveness of sins, there is bondage to sin. A sinning people may fret against the injustice of their overlords, but they lack the moral courage to make a stand against injustice. For a sinner to war against sin is comparable to warring against himself. As a result, a corrupt people will indulge in complaints against tyranny but will be impotent in combating it.”

But Jesus says it even better, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”

Jesus not only provides forgiveness of sin as well as grace; He is also “the ruler of the kings of the earth (Rev. 1:5). He is presently seated at the right hand of God, both interceding for His saints, and putting all of His enemies under His feet (Heb. 10:12-13). We, who are in Christ, know that God is sovereign over all rulers, even the tyrants who have forfeited their role as a Minister of God.

Coercion is good and godly when used lawfully. Is totalitarianism evil? Identify it, mark it, and combat it with what is holy. There is no need to fear tyranny ultimately when our King of kings is seated, but there is a lot of work yet to be done in providing a righteous and just alternative.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love.

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Image courtesy of Adobe.