Mark Rushdoony’s essay today, “Our True Citizenship,” reminds us that we have a higher citizenship in Christ’s Kingdom, above and beyond our earthly citizenship in the United States of America.
https://chalcedon.edu/blog/our-true-citizenship
And if we were good citizens of both, the two would not conflict!
One line stands out: “[N]o matter what men do, the cause of Christ will move forward.”
Can we have an “Amen!” to that? It is, after all, the message of the Resurrection.
Leaders die, followers die. Donors die, too. But the ideas must live on. We depend on the Holy Spirit for that.
https://chalcedon.edu/blog/we-must-move-the-ideas-forward
The first generation of the movement we call Christian Reconstruction–winning back the world and dedicating it to Christ–has mostly died out. We reprint their books and articles, write new books and articles ourselves; the work goes on. We look to the next generation to continue in our place.
You’d never know it, judging by North America and Western Europe, but conversions to the Christian faith are burgeoning, world-wide. At the same time, humanism is dying: there will be upheavals when it goes.
We serve Jesus Christ, the King of kings. His kingdom is eternal, encompassing both Heaven and the earth. We are part of an ongoing work of great magnificence, a temple made without hands, that will last forever.
Faith moves us; and we move the ideas forward.
There are many of us who believe in “the end times.” Some think it’s already begun.
But what if there were many “endings”? What if God intervenes in history, at certain points, to say “This stops now”?
Mark Rushdoony’s essay, based firmly on the Bible, might give you a new way of viewing “end times.”
https://chalcedon.edu/magazine/when-god-hits-the-delete-button-on-mans-pretensions
Think about it. In the Old Testament alone, how many times did God act to put a stop to what was happening? How many times did He apply the rod of correction to His people, Israel? How many times did He put down Israel’s enemies–even great empires, like Assyrian and Babylon?
We are not left here on our own. It’s not nice to imagine where we’d be if God did not intervene in history.
Yes, we long for Christ’s return! Yes, we wonder what’s taking it so long. But in the meantime the Lord has not forgotten us.
Joy to the World inspired this wonderful essay by Mark Rushdoony.
https://chalcedon.edu/blog/joy-to-the-world-because-our-king-reigns
Yes, as Mark points out, our world is in a heap of trouble just now. Our culture is polluted with a deep spiritual pollution. Our “leaders” push self-destructive, even suicidal, policies. Rebelling against God, they are in rebellion against reality itself. That’s what “transgender” is all about.
But the Christmas hymn presents the truth in all its power: Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords, reigning both in heaven and on the earth; and He has already lifted the curse. Evil will play itself out.
Thank you, Mark, for reminding us.
Sometimes covering the nooze is like struggling through dense jungle where the only path available is the one you hack out with your machete.
But we have to keep our eyes on the prize, Mark Rushdoony reminds us.
https://chalcedon.edu/blog/the-winning-side-1
The message of all of Scripture, Mark writes is “Jesus Christ victorious with all sin and evil put down.”
And who, in 70 A.D., would have given two cents for the new Christian Church’s chances of survival? Who would have bet against the might and power of Rome?
It’s not easy to do, since today in many ways we are like those early Christians trying to live out their faith surrounded by the Roman Empire; nevertheless, that’s God’s word to us and we have a duty to believe Him. Death and evil loses, Christ wins. That’s where the story’s going, no matter how many twists and turns it takes to get there.
The Sanctuary Choir at First Methodist Church, Houston
You can’t always see what a ministry is doing; and sometimes what a minister of the gospel does will take years to show up on the radar.
In “Rushdoony’s Future Impact,” Mark Rushdoony predicts R.J. Rushdoony’s impact on the church and on the culture will only grow more telling–“because he addresses issues which the church has refused to address, but will be forced to at some point.”
https://chalcedon.edu/blog/r-j-rushdoonys-future-impact
Many readers of Rushdoony’s works show surprise when they learn the book was first published in the 1960s or 70s, yet seems still more applicable two decades into the 21st century (Rushdoony died in 2001). No one even had a keener insight into church and culture: you’d almost swear he had a crystal ball.
So Chalcedon’s mission includes keeping Rushdoony’s books in print–after all, some of these fields have yet to yield their fruit.
Reader Input Wanted: Can you think of any pressing issues which the church in America has ducked so far, but will some day have to be addressed?
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?
In this Easter essay by Mark Rushdoony, “The Hope of the Believer,” we find encouragement that comes from God’s word. We need all the encouragement we can get, as we witness “the self-destructive paths our culture is currently pursuing.” Thankfully, he Lord never runs out of it.
https://chalcedon.edu/blog/the-hope-of-the-believer
We need to study Christ’s Resurrection not as just a historical event that’s over and done with, Mark writes, but as having urgent relevance to our lives now and in the future; because “our Lord is now at work, as He has been, and that ‘the gates of hell’ will not prevail against Him or His Kingdom.”
We really do need to keep that in mind.
In this month’s Chalcedon blog post, Mark Rushdoony reflects on people playing God: they’re in over their heads.
https://chalcedon.edu/blog/the-pretentions-of-men
Mark and I are close enough in age that we can both remember “air raid drills”–in case of an atomic bomb dropping on your school, “duck and cover” under your desk or get down to the basement hallway. Now it’s Systemic Racism and Climbit Change. “If men do not have an imminent threat to fear,” he writes, “they will find one.” And it’s very much a case of seek and ye shall find: no one ever comes home empty-handed from a search for The End O’ The World.
Finite creatures as we are, we’ll never fully understand anything God does. It’s why we need faith. We see the ungodly and the wicked running wild, intending to “transform” our country into a socialist hell-hole… and there is just no way we understand why God doesn’t just wipe them off the table.
Have faith.
It’s indispensable.
This little essay (in 2019) by Mark Rushdoony is as good as a sermon–especially now, when it looks like the ungodly own all the reins of power and can no more be restrained.
https://chalcedon.edu/blog/no-weapon-that-is-formed-against-thee-shall-prosper
It brings to my mind these lines from a hymn, This Is My Father’s World:
“This is my Father’s world, and let me ne’er forget/ That tho’ the wrong seems oft so strong,/ God is the ruler yet.”
Mark launches his text from the book of Esther: “The story of Esther is not primarily about the salvation of God but of His government, particularly as it works through unbelievers.”
Through unbelievers? Yes! When there are no good guys around to stop the bad guys, God will use other bad guys against them–or even, as He did to Pharaoh in the days of Moses, against themselves. But yes, He will work through unbelievers… whether they like it or not.
There is no corner in Heaven or on earth where God is not the sovereign Lord of All.