I have before me a treasured book first published in 1875, written by one of America’s great Christian educators. Recently, while lecturing at an Ivy League law school, I met his great-grandson a pleasant young man dressed like a semi-hippie who admitted that he and his brother went to great lengths to conceal their relationship to this remarkable ancestor, a former university president known for his Christian orthodoxy and strong American conservatism. Though heir to a rich spiritual and cultural legacy, he had cut himself off from it and chosen to be “poor” in spirit. This, tragically, is the condition of many today descendants of martyrs, heroes, and faithful believers who deliberately reject their heritage and then wonder why their lives lack strength, meaning, and direction. The worst poverty is spiritual poverty, especially when it is chosen. If that young man was foolish to deny his lineage, how much more foolish are any of us if we deny our Heavenly Father and deliberately impoverish ourselves?

Titanism is the glorification of human effort that seeks to do the impossible, often disguising pride as virtue. Rooted in Greek mythology and revived by Romanticism, it celebrates defying limits, fate, and even God, treating failure itself as proof of greatness.

Within the church, Titanism appears when believers ignore God’s clear commands about limits, stewardship of time, and fruitfulness. Scripture teaches that while God is omnipotent, man is not; Christians are forbidden to waste time on futile efforts, to defy God’s order, or to attempt to “play God” in prayer, ministry, or reform. Faithfulness, not heroics, is required.

At heart, Titanism is hubris the desire to seize God’s role and glory. Biblical faith rejects titanic ambition in favor of humble obedience, wise discernment, and service under Christ’s sovereign rule.

In this broadcast, R.J. Rushdoony, Otto Scott, and R.E. McMaster discuss the moral and religious collapse of the Western world and its profound impact on economics, politics, and society. McMaster emphasizes that government and economics are extensions of religious ethics, noting stark contrasts between Protestant-influenced North America and Catholic/Latin cultures, particularly in terms of productivity, decentralization, and the long-term perspective. They critique the rise of short-term financial speculation, debt-driven economies, and government interference, illustrating how these undermine individual responsibility, long-term planning, and societal prosperity.

The conversation also examines historical patterns, including the role of the Puritan work ethic in American capitalism, the global trade and industrial shifts involving Japan, Korea, and Latin America, and the use of debt as a tool of control. Rushdoony and the panel stress that declining faith and moral standards, coupled with monopolies in money, law, education, and health, erode societal stability. They warn that without a restoration of Christian ethics and a long-term outlook, economic and social collapse could intensify, potentially giving rise to radical movements if ordinary citizens are financially and socially imperiled.

The discussion concludes by noting the Christian community’s limited engagement with economics and the political-economic sphere, emphasizing that meaningful cultural and economic reform must be rooted in faith, biblical law, and long-term stewardship of resources.

Twice recently friends asked my opinion of glamorous new “charities” their women’s groups had adopted causes I’ll call the Friends of the Whoopee Indians and the Christian Mission to Ivy League Hopheads. I told them frankly I thought little of either, because real charity begins at home. In nearly every church there are elderly couples needing weekly help with housework, shopping, or caring for a bedridden spouse; there are mothers abandoned by their husbands who could use practical support, food, clothing, or assistance with children. But such charity requires personal involvement, not simply mailing off money to distant strangers. Helping Mr. Smith care for his invalid wife is a real, recurring burden far less glamorous than shipping a donation across the world, but far more Christian. People prefer sentimental charity that costs little and touches nothing; responsible charity requires hands, time, and inconvenience. The Pharisee loved charity without involvement. Are you and is your church falling into the same trap?

Mrs. B___ lives in a lovely home in an elite neighborhood and prides herself on being a “good” liberal parent, insisting her teenagers bring home every sort of troubled classmate. When her house was burglarized clearly by youths who knew exactly what to take she felt no anger, only a sort of thrilled moral superiority. Rather than blame the thieves, she blamed “society,” insisting that we are all guilty and should make it up to “underprivileged youth,” vowing she would never prosecute. But to justify thieves is worse than the theft itself: the teenagers stole property, but she attacked the moral foundations of society by denying personal responsibility. This modern habit of blaming culture, parents, or “the system” is simply a revival of pagan barbarism the same mentality that once killed innocent people because a witch doctor claimed they caused someone’s illness. Scripture, by contrast, is crystal clear: every man is accountable for his own sin (Deut. 24:16; Jer. 31:30). Mrs. B imagines herself enlightened, but her thinking is as primitive as any tribesman with a bone through his nose.

This passage explores the origin and meaning of the word nag, tracing it from its Scandinavian roots meaning “to gnaw, bite, or burrow” to its modern sense of persistent, irritating talk or complaint. The imagery comes from rats gnawing in thatched-roof houses during the Middle Ages, producing an unending, unwelcome noise hence the connection to human nagging. Solomon recognized the difficulty of living with constant complaint, yet the text argues that not all nagging is negative. Constructive nagging, like Samuel Adams’ persistent advocacy for freedom, can lead to important political or social change. The takeaway is that citizens should engage in persistent, courteous political advocacy with state and federal representatives to safeguard and advance freedom reminding us that freedom requires active, continual effort.

#Nagging #PoliticalPersistence #Freedom #CivicEngagement #Etymology

You've done the hard thing. The Lord has blessed it. And the men who turn up looking for a row aren't your enemies — they're your brothers. Ephraim sat out seven years of plunder, then ambushed Gideon at the peak of victory. Gideon answers softly, magnifies their gleaning above his vintage, and the wrath goes out of them in three sentences. A covenant if-then you can use in your marriage, workplace, or church this week.

In John 14 our Lord speaks words of deep comfort to troubled disciples by answering their fears with Himself: He is the way to the Father, the truth incarnate, and the life victorious over sin and death. To know Christ is to know the Father, for He is God in the flesh, and through union with Him believers already belong to the Father’s house and its eternal promise. Though He departs visibly, He remains present with His people by the Holy Spirit, making His abode with them and securing their victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil. True peace, therefore, is not found in changed circumstances or earthly triumphs, but in faith “Believe in God, believe also in me” for Christ’s peace rests on His finished victory and abiding presence, a peace the world cannot give and cannot take away.

Some years ago, when a farmhouse caught fire in the middle of the night, the family barely escaped, but the tidy housewife paused in the burning living room just long enough to straighten a crooked picture before running outside. The entire home soon burned to the ground, but at least the picture was straight when it perished. That story comes to mind when I hear certain preachers today: the flames of cultural destruction are rising, the walls of discipline and moral order are collapsing, yet they spend their time “straightening pictures” denouncing mild words like “gosh” and “darn,” or preaching whole sermons about hemlines. Christ did not commission His church to fix trifles, but to proclaim that all authority in heaven and on earth belongs to Him, to disciple and baptize the nations, and to teach them to obey all His commandments. His promise “Lo, I am with you always” belongs to those who march under this Great Commission, not to those who waste their calling on irrelevancies. A derailed train is useless; so is a derailed church.

This session frames the family as a fundamentally religious institution—not merely sociological or economic—and uses Psalm 127 to argue that true “security” (personal and national) is futile unless the Lord is the builder; the psalm’s startling point is that children, raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, are God’s appointed “weaponry” for cultural and spiritual conflict, “arrows” by which God’s people contend with enemies at the gate rather than cower behind walls. It rejects romantic myths of pre-Christian family virtue (noting pagan kinship could be violent and treacherous) and insists sin concentrates around what matters most, making the family either a holy stronghold or a nightmare power-system unless governed by God’s grace and Law-Word—illustrated by Lamech’s boastful brutality and the pagan tendency to locate ultimate power in tribe or state rather than God. Against this, the lecture highlights the Pilgrim/Puritan model of family-as-enterprise, school, vocation, church, correction, and welfare—an integrated “household order” under Scripture—and concludes that today’s growing pushback (homeschooling, Christian schooling, parental authority, discipline) signals a Spirit-driven recovery of the family in Christ, prepared to resist statist claims and rebuild household life as the frontline of dominion and kingdom advance.

#FamilyAndReligion #Psalm127 #ExceptTheLordBuild #ChildrenAsArrows #KingdomConflict #BiblicalWorldview #HouseholdOrder #ChristianEducation #DominionUnderChrist #AgainstStatism #CovenantFamily #LawWord #MoreThanConquerors