Tag: www.chalcedon.edu

Rushdoony on Socialism

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Dead, but still a threat to freedom

R.J. Rushdoony’s essay on “Socialism as a Perpetual Civil War” was published as a Chalcedon blog post in 2009. Actually it was written quite a few years before that: but its insights are right on target today.

https://chalcedon.edu/blog/socialism-as-a-perpetual-civil-war

Rushdoony points out that socialism has its own “infallibility concept” which explains away its multitudinous and incessant failure. It destroys wealth and inhibits wealth’s creation. When anything goes wrong, it finds a scapegoat. When an epidemic struck Red China in 1967, the government threatened to purge the doctors who had “ignored Mao’s health policies”–as if medical doctors knew less about health than some crazy old mass murderer.

It’s looking more and more like we’re headed for a showdown between Christ’s Kingdom and humanist man’s impoverished socialist pipe dream.

And that’s a fight we’d better win.

Was King Arthur a Winner or a Failure?

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I reviewed J.R.R. Tolkien’s posthumously published book, The Fall of Arthur, for Chalcedon a few years ago–one of my better articles, if I do say so myself.

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/articles/review-of-tolkiens-the-fall-of-arthur

Much as I cringe at having to take issue with Tolkien, I can’t help it. I think he’s wrong for looking at the fall of Arthur rather than his long-term legacy. Our own time, that we live in every day, would be very different, had there been no Arthur in the 6th century. We do have many serious problems; but it would be worse, I think, much worse, had Arthur never lived.

What–am I crazy?

Read the review and see.

‘What Makes Us Different’

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“Come Ye Sinners” (Norton Hall Band): Andrea has provided the lyrics in her blog post.

By Andrea Schwartz on the Chalcedon blog, “What Makes Us Different” reminds us that the fallen world hates Christ and hates Christians and Christianity–and it doesn’t matter!

https://chalcedon.edu/blog/what-makes-us-different

Only Christianity offers healing and forgiveness to sinners–and we’re all sinners. We don’t have to scramble to rack up good works, only to fall short by one or two. Jesus Christ has paid our bill: paid it on the cross, paid in full.

A Review of ‘Scientific Mythologies: How Science and Science Fiction Forge New Religious Beliefs’ (2015)

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Not really real, folks

I reviewed James A Herrick’s book for Chalcedon in 2015. The review is a little long, but I think you’ll find it worth reading.

https://chalcedon.edu/magazine/a-review-of-scientific-mythologies

I am always dumbfounded by how many stupid smart people there are, calling the shots in this fallen world, and by just how stupid they are. Really–is our “science” even real science anymore? We put men on the moon when our scientists used slide rules and a single computer filled a whole room. Now we can’t.

Herrick provides enough proof to choke a horse that in our popular culture, “science” and science fiction have merged into a hash of wishful thinking, unbridled speculation, and pure, unadulterated poppycock.

View it with extreme caution.

My Interview with David Limbaugh

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“If we don’t keep fighting the culture war, we can expect the demise of our values in America.”

David Limbaugh said this in 2005, when I interviewed him for Chalcedon.

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/articles/david-limbaugh-on-the-culture-war-christians-have-to-stay-in-the-fight

This week, with a Republican minority reduced to impotence, the New York State Legislature, overwhelmingly Democrat, voted to allow abortions up to the moment of birth. They’d been pushing this for a decade. Until now, Republican opposition had always been enough to defeat the measure.

Unlike so many other “conservatives” whose positions make me wonder what they think they’re “conserving,” David Limbaugh’s conservatism is firmly and deeply rooted in his Christianity. In the 13 years since this interview, he hasn’t changed. I like him for that!

‘Are You Pessimistic About the Future’?

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Walking by faith and not by sight isn’t easy. These days, pessimism about the future seems to come natural–at least to me. Heck, I just wrote about some “famous” person teaching small children that abortion is “part of God’s plan.”

Chalcedon President Mark Rushdoony has addressed the problem of pessimism: his words are a much-appreciated tonic.

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/articles/are-you-pessimistic-about-the-future

Who wants to be in Miss Abortion’s shoes on Judgment Day?

How Does God Protect Us? (‘The Smiths of Zechariah,’ by Martin Selbrede)

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“And the Lord showed me four carpenters… these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.”  –Zechariah 1: 20, 21

How does God protect us from the dark? By giving light. How does God protect us from lies? By the truth.

In this essay, Chalcedon Vice President Martin Selbrede turns to the prophecy of Zechariah to shed light on the shameful, stressful age in which we live.

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/articles/the-smiths-of-zechariah

It’s a little long, but stay with it: Martin makes some points we need to hear. His “smiths” are the “carpenters” of the King James Version. God knows His people are surrounded by enemies, and He will do something about it. And because we are His people, His servants, there is a role for us to play.

Carpenters aren’t soldiers. Soldiers knock things down, but carpenters build. They will build Christ’s Kingdom on the earth; and not with bombs and bullets, but with truth.

But of course exposing humanistic fallacies to the light of absolute truth is more destructive to them than any bomb can be.

Book Review: ‘Spartan and the Green Egg: the Poachers of Tiger Mountain’

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Shame on us if we can’t do better than this, in producing children’s literature.

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/articles/book-review-of-spartan-and-the-green-egg-the-poachers-of-tiger-mountain

How dumb, how gullible, do publishers think children are? And are you comfortable with the idea of a piece of extraterrestrial technology that’s virtually omnipotent and can, and will, give a bunch of kids anything and everything they ask for–instantly?

The more I think about these books, the less I like them. “Egg” the spaceship is presented to us as a machine, but it acts more like a god. And if you think absolute godlike power is a good thing for any children to have, you’re flat-out crazy.

Please! We just have to do better!

Speaking for myself, if God gave me everything I ever asked for, that would be proof He hated me.

‘New Year’s Resolutions a la Psalm One’

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Let’s renew our minds, shall we?

Andrea Schwartz has recast Psalm 1 as a list of New Year’s resolutions. Not a bad idea!

https://chalcedon.edu/blog/new-years-resolutions-a-la-psalm-one

What would the world be like, if everybody lived according to God’s Word? God has promised that we’ll all see that, someday. For the time being, personal sanctification is a gradual process, never-ending–might be kind of hard on us, if the Holy Spirit did it all at once.

Meanwhile, Happy New Year to all of you, from Chalcedon.

Chalcedon’s Move into Christian Fiction (Video)

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In 2013 Chalcedon’s vice-president, Martin Selbrede, explained our move into fiction–after a long history of publishing works on theology and Christian analysis of society and culture.

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/videos/christian-use-of-fiction

As exemplified by Our Lord Jesus Christ’s parables, fiction is “a vehicle for conveying ideas” and showing how Christian principles play out in real life, often accompanied by spiritual and personal conflict: “If there is no friction, there is no fiction,” Martin says, and he’s right. And that, of course, is the difference between a story and a sermon.

“We waited 45 years before we turned to fiction,” so as to lay a strong theological foundation for everything published by Chalcedon. We didn’t want mediocre fiction built on weak theology.

It was time to move into fiction, Martin says, because with fiction, “You can suddenly get people thinking.”

Martin has written a Christian novel, Hidden in Plain Sight, which explores the nature of reality; and we also have my Bell Mountain fantasy novels, with ten of them in print so far and No. 11, The Temptation, just about ready for publication.

Well, if you’ve ever wondered why a Christian educational foundation decided to publish fiction, this will explain it for you.