Tag Archives: Mark Rushdoony

March 27, 2020

Mark Rushdoony: ‘The Christian and Upheavals’

By leeduigon

Encyclopedia of American Loons: #2195: Mark Rushdoony

I’ve been looking forward to posting this new essay by Mark Rushdoony. It’s a “stand up and cheer” piece.

https://chalcedon.edu/blog/the-christian-and-upheavals

Mark recognizes that chaotic times are not exactly fun. “Upheaval brings change, and because we cannot see the future, the uncertainty causes us a great deal of anxiety.” But Scripture answers: “Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, ‘Yet once more,’ signifieth the removing of those things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken will remain.” (Hebrews 12:26-27)

So let’s put our heads down and keep working: because “Evil men do not control history, so they are periodically shaken out.”

Look for some of the bad guys to go missing.

2 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Articles, history, news, religion

March 18, 2020

Mark Rushdoony: ‘Christian Reconstruction and Our Small Part in a Big Idea’

By leeduigon

Image result for images of mark rushdoony

Mark Rushdoony’s piece, in our current Arise & Build newsletter, offers wisdom.

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/articles/christian-reconstruction-and-our-small-part-in-a-big-idea

For instance, “Addressing our national debt and fiat money is not within our reach as individuals but getting out of debt is. This small step can empower you now.” You may not be able to do the really big things; but doing what you can do is important, too.

Even more succinctly: “Our part of the future is the mess in front of us.” And really, that ought to be a big enough mess for anyone.

Often enough our part in God’s plan seems small and insignificant. But that’s how it seems to us, not Him. Only God sees the whole picture; and His hand is always on the tiller.

2 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Articles, religion

January 25, 2020

‘Actions vs. Academics’

By leeduigon

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Mark Rushdoony wrote this for our Chalcedon newsletter, Arise & Build, January 2020.

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/articles/actions-vs-academics

The church’s besetting sin today, Mark observes, is disobedience: they don’t keep God’s commandments, but rather indulge in disobedience in their day-to-day lives, never giving it a thought. They’re good at studying theology, though. Ask them about any 16th-century religious controversy, and they’re good to go. But how that helps anyone today is anybody’s guess.

“Faith must result in faithfulness,” Mark says–not in terms of a “works salvation” (do so many good works of a particular nature, and you’ve earned your way into heaven), but a “working faith” that puts God’s word into practice.

Or, as Jesus Himself said, “Occupy until I come.”

1 Comment   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Articles, religion

December 2, 2019

‘The Certainty of God’s Will’

By leeduigon

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There’s a lot of good stuff on the Chalcedon website today, and I hope some of you will visit it. But I’d like to highlight this message Mark Rushdoony wrote, the day after Thanksgiving.

https://chalcedon.edu/blog/the-certainty-of-gods-will

“Without a belief in the certainty of God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven, we could become very discouraged,” Mark writes. That’s putting it mildly. Even the martyred saints in paradise find it hard to wait for that. If you don’t have a Bible handy, here’s the verses:

…I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? (Revelation 6:9-10)

We have to be faithful, we have to be patient.

God will do everything that He has said He will do, in His own time.

We have His promise. And we have His Son.

 

5 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Articles, religion

November 28, 2019

‘Thanks Be to God’ (2001)

By leeduigon

As you read this, Patty and I are on our way to Thanksgiving dinner with my brother and sister, and trying to stay alive on the Parkway. I appreciate your prayers to help us get there and back without any distressing incidents.

Mark Rushdoony wrote and published this piece in 2001, Thanks Be to God.

https://chalcedon.edu/magazine/thanks-be-to-god

“The more we recognize what God does for us,” he said, “the more we see who God is.”

The Bible tells us of many ways and occasions of giving thanks to God. Importantly, thanksgiving to God ought to be a matter of personal gratitude. Personal. We are persons because God is a person, and He made us in His image.

We can start with thanking Him for that!

3 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Articles, religion

November 10, 2019

God’s People and ‘Nature’

By leeduigon

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Mark Rushdoony wrote “Man and the Earth: Environmentalism vs. Kingdom Responsibility,” as a Chalcedon editorial in 2009. It seems to be more on target today than it was ten years ago.

https://chalcedon.edu/magazine/man-and-the-earth-environmentalism-versus-kingdom-responsibility

Environmentalism “is based on evolutionary assumptions about the most fundamental aspects of man’s being,” Mark wrote. As a result, “nature” gradually replaces God in the minds and hearts of the worldly.

Is it necessary to observe that the very same people who are always yammering about “green this” and “green that” are also the very first to pave the green over, if they think it’ll net them another 25 cents or another vote? Anyone who thinks Democrats “protect the environment” needs to tour New Jersey.

In the long run, Mark writes, “the sin is not against the earth, but God.” And God will use the earth to punish the sinners.

1 Comment   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Articles, religion

October 30, 2019

‘The Christian and the Cultural Wars’

By leeduigon

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I have to go vegetate in the veterinarian’s waiting room, but first let me post this Chalcedon editorial by Mark Rushdoony, from 2004:

https://chalcedon.edu/magazine/the-christian-and-the-cultural-wars

Christ’s command to “Occupy until I come” (Luke 19:13) should have been the church’s watchword–and ours, too, individually.

Because we didn’t occupy, the ungodly came out of the woodwork and occupied our culture; and we’re having a very hard time holding on to the little bit they’ve left us.

Work harder. Pray harder. Sing louder. And proclaim the truth.

1 Comment   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Articles, religion

October 27, 2019

‘The Battlefield Ahead’

By leeduigon

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Christian school–way more dangerous to the bad guys than it looks

In this Chalcedon editorial, Mark Rushdoony reminds us to keep our eye on the ball, as it were–the ball being the need to re-Christianize our society from the ground up, starting with ourselves and our families.

https://chalcedon.edu/blog/the-battlefield-ahead

We need to win battles in the culture war, but we have to get out of having to fight all the battles on ground chosen by the enemy. Christian families, Christian schools, Christian neighborhoods and fellowships, and even Christianized workplaces–these are the kind of developments that are well within our scope to create.

And their creation will give the bad guys fits.

8 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Pop Culture, Public Education, religion

September 27, 2019

‘The Next Phase of History’

By leeduigon

Image result for images of titanic sinking

In light of some of the totally daft public policies and cultural spasms we’ve been reading about this week, we might well ask, “What is the next phase of history?”

https://chalcedon.edu/blog/the-next-phase-of-history

Mark Rushdoony has a thoughtful essay–and in it, I think, he’s dug his way down to the heart of the matter.

Humanism, now embracing and promoting such total irrationalities as “transgender” and “open borders,” while at the same time proclaiming the imminent end of the world unless we all do exactly as they tell us–humanism has embraced its own destruction.

Because, as Mark says, reality is real and cannot be pushed aside by any amount of wishful thinking.

And it will devour those irrationalities.

What will replace humanism? We pray it will be a new growth in God’s Kingdom on the earth–which we can already see happening in such unlikely places as China and Iran.

I look forward to the day when “gender fluid” will be of interest only to cryptozoologists.

3 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Articles, religion

July 25, 2019

‘No Heroes in the Kingdom of God’

By leeduigon

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Do you ever get the feeling that nothing you do, personally, serves God and His Kingdom in any meaningful way?

You can stop fretting. It’s God who advances the Kingdom; we are only honored to be His servants.

Mark Rushdoony addresses that issue in a recent essay for Chalcedon.

https://chalcedon.edu/blog/no-heroes-in-the-kingdom-of-god

We can’t all be Martin Luther or Mother Theresa. But we can all be faithful.

2 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in religion

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