Tag: Mark Rushdoony

Don’t Play the Guilt Game REPRINT

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Guilty High Res Stock Images | Shutterstock

From June 9, 2021

One way to enslave people is to shackle them with guilt–guilt for this, guilt for that, blame people living today for slavery that ended 150 years ago, or 300 years ago, whatever. Mark Rushdoony calls it “An Old Strategy.”

https://chalcedon.edu/blog/an-old-strategy

The important thing to remember, Mark points out, is that “manipulation by guilt… is anti-Christian to the core.” Why? Because Jesus Christ is our salvation. Because Jesus Christ removes our guilt. He has already atoned for our sins. We do not have to obey The Party or Dear Leader to pay for what we’ve done. Christ sets us at liberty; the sentence has been lifted.

P.S.–Now I’ve got to re-read R.J. Rushdoony’s The Politics of Guilt and Pity, published in 1970–but reads like he’d written it today. Well, you can say that about a lot of his work, can’t you?

‘”Irrational Humanism” Explained’ (2019)

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Mark Rushdoony on the Spirit advancing the Kingdom.

Mark Rushdoony

Did Mark Rushdoony ever hit the nail on the head with this one!

‘Irrational Humanism’ Explained

Today is Palm Sunday, marking Our Lord Jesus Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Not a day to be down-hearted! Not a day to wring one’s hands and think the ungodly are winning.

Yes, there’s a lot of crazy crapola in our modern world. But it will not prevail.

We have God’s word on it!

Mark Rushdoony: ‘History Is Never About Us’

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Mark At Desk 2020 02 04 03 55 48 UTC 1

Mark Rushdoony

Are we the stars of a movie called “history”? Has it all led up to… us?

Mark Rushdoony asks a penetrating question: “What if the end of history is not soon approaching?”

https://chalcedon.edu/blog/history-is-never-about-us

How many people wind up thinking, “Our time is the end times–it’s all led up to now“? People have been believing that for 2,000 years.

We are where God has put us, and He is the only one who knows the number of the page in which we appear. Each of us is here for a reason. We may not know what it is, but we can be sure God knows.

History may not be about us; but like it or not, each of us is part of it.

There’ll be so much to learn when we finally get to Heaven!

‘Why You Have a Problem With Authority’ (Mark Rushdoony)

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Rebel against authority

“Viva yo!” (Spanish proverb)

What could be simpler? Our problem with authority–especially with God’s authority–goes all the way back to Genesis 3:5: “ye shall be as gods.”

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/articles/why-you-have-a-problem-with-authority

We want to be as gods, defining good and evil for ourselves. As Mark Rushdoony writes, “Even churchmen are ingenious in devising theologies that discount God’s authoritative law-word in favor of their own.”

Don’t we see this every day? We ourselves are sometimes guilty. Maybe even often. How often do we hear the words, “But I think…”? All the way back to Adam and Eve. And the serpent.

Obedience to God’s word, not man’s, justifies us and leads to spiritual regeneration and, eventually sanctification. God’s law is law, and it’s the same for every kindred, every tribe. But there are as many versions of man’s law as there are groups of human beings, most of them contradicting one another. That’s why so many of our laws are unjust–or even irrational.

But God’s laws are both just and sane.

‘Today’s Revolutionaries’ (Mark Rushdoony)

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Mark Rushdoony's 2023 Year-End Letter

As I was wondering why there’s so much weird and creepy nooze out there, these days, I visited the Chalcedon website and encountered this essay by Mark Rushdoony:

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/articles/todays-revolutionaries

It’s because so many of our (ahem!) intellectual leaders have fully embraced Evolution, in all its Darwinian glory, as Nature’s Way. The world is constantly changing: therefor we and our institutions must also change, sometimes frantically, just to keep up. Because constant change is necessary for survival in a changing world. “What you and I see as destructive,” Mark writes, “they see as progressive.”

And presto–our civilization turns into a drunkards’ fire drill.

The only good news is that Christianity is the fastest-growing religion in the world today: Christ’s Kingdom being built one brick at a time, and always building.

There are an awful lot of people out there who want to Change The World, usually in ways that leave them luxuriously ensconced in seats of power while the rest of us try to live with the consequences of their socio-political experiments.

“He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the LORD shall have them in derision.Then shall He speak to them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure.” –Psalm 2: 4-5

 

‘The Folly of Men Trying to Control the Future’ (Mark Rushdoony)

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Mark Rushdoony on Charity & Welfare

Mark Rushdoony

Can we control the future?

Well, if the way we’re handling the present is any indication… No.

https://chalcedon.edu/blog/the-folly-of-men-trying-to-control-the-future

Whether it was China’s blow-up-in-your-face “one child only” policy, or the diseased sociology of the West, all over the world, recessions are looming. The old “boom & bust” cycles aren’t work anymore. Populations are aging, shrinking… and “Workers are getting hard to find.”

Mark Rushdoony’s essay can be easily summed up:

Trust not in the statists who have made this mess! They did it and we’re paying for it.

Only God can fix this. Why not put our trust  in Him?

‘The Christian Christmas Tree’ (2018)

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See the source image

Yes, it’s okay for Christians to have a Christmas tree–it won’t turn you into a pagan.

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/articles/the-christian-christmas-tree-2

The Christmas tree, Mark Rushdoony explained in 2018, is an allusion to the Biblical Tree of Life–a key image in both Genesis and Revelation. The Tree of Life is Jesus Christ. We partake of God’s grace in Jesus Christ.

We don’t have to surrender Christmas!

Just keep the cat away from the tinsel.

 

‘What Does Modern Baal Worship Look Like?’

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The Return Of The Baal Worship: Its Already Started But People Don't See it - YouTube

The short answer: It looks a lot like the Baal worship described and condemned in the Old Testament. And that should worry us a lot more than it does.

Mark Rushdoony and Andrea Schwartz discuss this at some length (https://chalcedon.edu/resources/audio/what-does-modern-baal-worship-look-like-ep-257-guest-mark-rushdoony). Okay, it’s 51 minutes. But the message is important, and you can always listen to it in increments.

The Jews in the time of Jeremiah (they never listened to him!) had no idea how close they were to incurring God’s wrath… although various prophets had given, and continued to give, fair warning. They thought Jerusalem would never fall.

The didn’t abandon God, Mark explains. No: their sin lay in “demoting Jehovah to one of many gods” (How inclusive!) and settling for the belief that “God’s going to protect us because we’re not all that bad–other people are worse.”

The question arises: “Why should God bless America?”

None of this is as simple as you might have thought. You might find the podcast highly enlightening.

Mark Rushdoony: ‘Investing in the Kingdom’

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Mark Rushdoony on Charity & Welfare

“Lights out” for humanism: Mark Rushdoony

This is a rather long interview, but the message is important and just about sure to answer some questions that you’ve had.

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/articles/investing-in-the-kingdom-as-humanism-collapses

We see the ungodly running wild, chewing up churches and spitting them out–and yet the church continues… and grows. History ebbs and flows, “and yet the Kingdom of God has grown.”

We don’t make the Kingdom grow; God does. Our calling is, above all, to be faithful: to walk in God’s word as best we can at home, at work, in everyday life.

Go back to St. Paul’s time. Who in his right mind would have wagered a widow’s mite that Paul’s church would still be growing two thousand years later… but Rome would not?

We didn’t make that happen. God did.

‘The Kingdom of God Will Both Endure and Grow’

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Mark Rushdoony on Charity & Welfare - YouTube

We have a brief message this morning from Chalcedon’s president, Mark Rushdoony.

https://chalcedon.edu/blog/the-kingdom-of-god-will-both-endure-and-grow

Mark continues to prepare his father’s manuscripts for publication (hard to keep up with R.J. Rushdoony as he wrote them!), including a possible trilogy on “the irrationality and suicidal course of man in his rebellion against God.”

Rushdoony’s observations and insights, which he wrote down 50 years ago, are startlingly applicable to today’s religious and cultural scene.

All Rushdoony’s books are available via the Chalcedon Store at http://www.chalcedon.edu/ .