Showing results by author "R. J. Rushdoony" in All Categories

Essentially, all of mankind is on some sort of exodus. However, the path of fallen man is vastly different from that of the righteous. Apart from Jesus Christ and his atoning work, the exodus of a fallen humanity means only a further descent from sin into death. But in Christ, the exodus is now a glorious ascent into the justice and dominion of the everlasting Kingdom of God.

The need today is for the church to press the crown-rights of Christ the king, confident that his government over all will increase without end: "The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. This powerful volume sets forth a Biblical theology of the state, tracing in detail the history and consequences of both statist domination and Christian dereliction of duty. By firmly establishing the Biblical alternative to modern Christianity's polytheism, the author alerts us to the pitfalls of the past, and provides Godly counsel for both the present and future.

There is a marked resemblance between our time and that of Elijah and Elisha. Their day was an age of syncretism, of radical compromise between the worship of the Lord and Baal worship. The two had been blended together to make one religion, so that a refusal to see the necessity for uncompromising religion marked Israel. In Chariots of Prophetic Fire, R. J. Rushdoony challenges the Church of our day to resist compromise and the temptation of expediency and realize that the power today does not lie in politics or governments, but in God’s men of faith.

This $57 billion dollar industry is swallowing peoples worldwide as its revenues exceed that of professional football, baseball, and basketball combined. Statistics reveal that upwards of 40 million American adults regularly visit over 372 million published pornographic web pages. How did we get here?

We live in an age of practical atheism where men pay lip service to God and then do as they please. Our time is marked by a failure to meet our responsibility while believing that nothing will happen—that God will not judge His church as He’s judged His people throughout history. As we know, judgment begins at the house of God because the church bears the greater burden of guilt for possessing the greater privileges of God’s covenant, grace, salvation, and courage.

To attempt to study Scripture without studying its law is to deny it. To attempt to understand Western civilization apart from the impact of biblical law within it and upon it is to seek a fictitious history and to reject 20 centuries and their progress. The Institutes of Biblical Law has as its purpose a reversal of the present trend. it is called "Institutes" in the older meaning of that word--i.e., fundamental principles, here of law, because it is intended as a beginning, as an instituting consideration of that law that must govern society.

Rushdoony’s Sermons in First and Second Corinthians are the last of his Biblical commentaries—delivered shortly before his passing—but it represents a fitting close to his teaching ministry. He said Paul’s letters are difficult to preach on because they speak to the sins of Christians, and with the church at Corinth, the long list of sins included division, strife, injustice, immorality, doctrinal error, and the abuse of the sacraments.

First published in 1970, this book helped spur the modern rise of postmillennialism. Revelation's details are often perplexing, even baffling, and yet its main meaning is clear: It is a book about victory. It tells us that our faith can only result in victory. "This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith" (1 John 5:4). This is why knowing Revelation is so important. It assures us of our victory and celebrates it. Genesis 3 tells us of the fall of man into sin and death. Revelation gives us man's victory in Christ over sin and death.

The Lord desires a people who will embrace their responsibilities. The history of Israel in the wilderness is a sad narrative of a people with hearts hardened by complaint and rebellion to God's ordained authorities. They were slaves, not an army. They would recognize the tyranny of Pharaoh but disregard the servant-leadership of Moses. God would judge the generation he led out of captivity, while training a new generation to conquer Canaan. The Book of Numbers reveals God's dealings with both generations.

Hypocrisy replaces virtue when men cover their sins rather than confess them to God. This is all too common when men do not preach and practice a Biblical doctrine of confession. The challenge is first to restore the meaning of confession as taught in the Scriptures. As long as confession is seen as a Romanist doctrine, we have no hope of recovering this vital aspect of Christianity. In this path-breaking volume, R. J. Rushdoony examines the Biblical teaching on confession and sets it over against the errors of Romanism and the neo-Freudianism of modern Christian counseling.

The first section summarizes the case laws. The author tenderly illustrates how the law is for our good, and makes clear the difference between the sacrificial laws and those that apply today. The second section vividly shows the practical implications of the law. The examples catch the reader's attention; the author clearly has had much experience discussing God's law. The third section shows that would-be challengers to God's law produce only poison and death. Only God's law can claim to express God's "covenant grace in helping us."

The great problem in the church's interpretation of Scripture has been its ecclesiastical orientation, as though God speaks only to the church, and commands only the church. The Lord God speaks in and through His Word to the whole man, to every man, and to every area of life and thought. To assume that the Triune Creator of all things is in His word and person only relevant to the church is to deny His Lordship or sovereignty. If we turn loose the whole Word of God onto the church and the world, we shall see with joy its power and glory. This is the purpose of my brief comments.

As the last installment of R.J. Rushdoony's commentary series on the Pentateuch, it stands as one of the more dynamic expositions in the series in that it addresses God's demands upon man, family, church, and state. In short, Deuteronomy is the defining volume on theocracy. The redemptive power of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit are the enabling forces for a people to once again live faithful to God's covenant—and Deuteronomy provides the details for that covenant. Rushdoony's study represents a sizable deposit into securing the obedience of the church.

The Foundations of Social Order was, and remains, the most unique book ever written in the history of Christendom. Nothing like it has been written before, and nothing like it has been written since.

The book of Leviticus has not been a popular subject of study in the modern church. Much like the book of proverbs, any emphasis upon the practical applications of God's law is readily shunned in pursuit of more "spiritual" studies. Books like Leviticus are considered dull, overbearing, and irrelevant. To be spiritual, in the modern sense of the term, means to live on a "higher" level where today's Christian is governed more by the impressions of the heart than a carnal commandment.

From 1953 to 1956, Reverend R. J. Rushdoony gave weekly radio talks at Santa Cruz, California, station KSCO that reveal a perfect blend of strong theology with poignant pastoral counsel. In fact, these insightful, concise messages are so well done, they could be used for both individual and group discipleship at any level. They are a storehouse of wisdom, inspiration, strong doctrine, exhortation, and comfort for the Christian life.

A collection of weekly radio messages by R. J. Rushdoony. From 1953 to 1956, Reverend R. J. Rushdoony gave weekly radio talks at KSCO station, Santa Cruz, California that reveal a perfect blend of strong theology with poignant pastoral counsel. In fact, these insightful and concise messages are so well done, they could be used for both individual and group discipleship at any level. They are a storehouse of wisdom, inspiration, strong doctrine, exhortation, and comfort for the Christian life.

Our faith should be an informed one because the god who created all things speaks to every sphere of life, and all facts should be studied in light of the revelation of god in scripture. This is the foundation of Christian dominion. For R. J. Rushdoony, true government was the self-government of the Christian life in terms of God's law, so he wrote his position papers to better equip Christians to apply their faith to all of life.

There is a resounding call in Hebrews that we cannot forget without going astray: "Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach" (13:13). This is a summons to serve Christ the Redeemer-King fully and faithfully, without compromise. In our time, it calls for a break, not only with the prevailing culture of humanistic statism and its messianic claims and pretensions, but also a wayward church that has made itself the handmaiden to Christ's enemies.

The writing of history is always in terms of a framework, a philosophical and ultimately religious conceptual structure in the mind of the historian. To the orthodox Christian, the shabby incarnations of the reigning historiographies are both absurd and offensive. A Christian historiography and a Christian revisionism are thus for him moral imperatives. These essays are studies in Christian revisionism. There purpose is to call attention those aspects of American history that are currently neglected.