Rushdoony on Christ's Kingship

In contemporary church and state trials, the language of state theology is ... far-reaching in its claims. In no trial of churches, Christian schools, home schools, or parents in which I have been involved has there been any question as to the superior educational achievements and training of youth on the part of Christians. This, however, is considered usually an irrelevant issue because the main concern of the state is to maintain its claims to sovereign jurisdiction. The issue is thus a religious one: who is the Lord, Christ or Caesar? Who is the Sovereign? We are plainly told by Scripture, not that Jesus will be King and Lord, but that Jesus Christ “IS the blessed and ONLY Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords” (1 Tim. 6:15). Because He is the King here and now and forever more, His law-word must govern us now and always, and all things must be reordered and remade to conform to His royal word. No sphere of life is exempt from His government, and not an atom of creation was created apart from Him or has any right to independence from Him. Christ is not lord over merely a corner of creation, nor only the church, but over all things. He is not less than God but very God of very God as well as very man of very man. There can be no justice or righteousness in man nor in society apart from Jesus Christ as Savior and King.

Moreover, no more than the Romans could lock up Jesus Christ inside a sealed tomb can the churchmen of our day confine Him to the church. If they continue to try to lock Him into the church, He will shatter the church as He did the tomb, and leave it empty as He emerges to rule the world, for He “is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords” (1 Tim. 6:15).

{excerpted from Sovereignty by RJ Rushdoony}