Adoption is one of the most glorious doctrines of Scripture, defining the believer’s relationship to God not merely as forgiven sinner or renewed creature, but as a son received into God’s own household through Jesus Christ; while by nature men are only creatures and there is only one natural Son of God, Christ alone, salvation brings more than pardon and regeneration it brings adoption, an irreversible act of God’s free grace whereby the justified are given God’s name, God’s Spirit, God’s care, God’s discipline, and God’s inheritance. Unlike a mere pardon, which removes guilt but leaves a man outside the family, adoption makes believers heirs of all God’s promises and fellow-heirs with Christ, enabling them to cry “Abba, Father,” and to live under the assurance that even suffering and chastening come from a wise and loving Father and work to their eternal good; thus adoption is the crowning privilege of salvation, the fullest expression of the liberty and glory of the children of God.

In this 1987 Easy Chair discussion, R.J. Rushdoony and Otto Scott argue that the “future” isn’t an unreadable mystery so much as the present worked out—and that modern decadence shows itself in a culture that can’t defend itself, won’t think past the moment, and replaces realistic planning with fantasy. They critique celebrity “futurecasting” as shallow, insular, and godless—whether rosy or grim—because it ignores that man is fundamentally religious, and history unfolds under God’s sovereign decree. Against the modern state’s push to “predestine” everything through total control (a horizontal Tower of Babel), they warn of coming judgment and testing, yet insist judgment can also be God’s clearing of the ground for renewal. Their hope rests in God’s unexpected interventions and in a rising, grassroots Christian seriousness—discipleship, responsibility, and rebuilding—so that believers don’t merely comment on the future, but work to create a godly one.

#EasyChair #Rushdoony #OttoScott #ChristianWorldview #FaithAndFuture #JudgmentAndMercy #Discipleship #CultureAndCrisis #GodsSovereignty #Dominion #BiblicalThinking #ChristianReconstruction"

A modern young woman, caught in bed with her lover, became furious when her husband discovered the affair, beat the adulterer, and threw him out; she called the police and demanded his arrest for violating her “privacy” and “rights.” Outraged when the officers refused, she saw the social order not her sin as the problem. This is precisely what Proverbs 29:18 (Berkeley Version) warns about: “Where there is no vision the people run wild; but happy is he who keeps the law.” When prophetic vision faithful preaching of God’s Word is absent, people define “rights” by their desires rather than by God’s law, and society unravels. Like millions today, this young adulteress was angry at righteousness and blind to her own guilt, because she lived without the corrective light of Scripture. With many voices clamoring for attention, the question remains: are you guided by God’s Word, or are you choosing blindness and running wild with no vision?

Cartesianism makes the human mind the source of truth and reality (“I think, therefore I am”), replacing God’s revealed world with subjective ideas and symbols. In theology, this turns Biblical history into “myth” or “meaning” while denying real events like the incarnation or resurrection.

At root, it repeats Genesis 3:5 man deciding reality for himself. Scripture teaches that man’s problem is sin, not ignorance, and that truth comes from the triune God, not autonomous human thought.

In “Innocent III” (Chalcedon Report No. 151), Rushdoony examines how well-intentioned but misdirected efforts at moral renewal can deepen rather than cure civilizational decay. He portrays Pope Innocent III as an able and forceful leader who rightly recognized Europe’s spiritual indifference but disastrously sought renewal through dramatic, external action especially crusades rather than regeneration and obedience to God’s law. The Fourth Crusade, the sack of Constantinople, the Albigensian Crusade, and the Children’s Crusade illustrate how moral causes pursued by unregenerate men unleash greed, violence, and hypocrisy. Rushdoony argues that this “Innocentine” logic persists in modern politics, where secular crusades wars, global institutions, reform movements are launched in the name of humanity rather than Christ, yet produce similar destruction. The core error is faith in action, innocence, or programs instead of regeneration. True reform, he insists, begins with new hearts under God, continues with obedience to His law, and works patiently through restitution, Christian education, family faithfulness, and godly dominion never through crusading power.

Truly blind men are those who trust only what they see and therefore see nothing. They look at the world’s overwhelming order and design yet insist it is accidental, exercising a faith in mindless miracles far greater than anything the Bible requires. Scripture declares that creation openly displays God’s glory (Ps. 19:1) and that His eternal power is “clearly seen” in all He has made, leaving men “without excuse” (Rom. 1:20). Such blindness is therefore deliberate: to acknowledge God’s handiwork would require confessing sin and surrendering the fantasy of being one’s own god. Thus fallen man chooses blindness rather than salvation, autonomy rather than truth, and his attempts to rule a world he refuses to see inevitably collapse into disaster. Yet when men cry out in their distress, God “sends His word and heals them” (Ps. 107:20). To receive His Word is to confess His sovereignty and to recognize that reality is never merely what we see God’s hand governs all things. Do you see that?

Crime can’t be fixed by tougher policing alone when a culture is rotting at the roots. This talk traces how law enforcement retreats once lawlessness becomes normal—because the deeper crisis isn’t just criminals, it’s the public’s softened conscience and the collapse of self-government. The solution isn’t bigger prisons (a modern experiment that often protects offenders and ignores victims), but biblical justice: restitution that restores the harmed, and—when necessary—removing the hardened offender so evil doesn’t become a professional class. Then the spotlight swings to what we’ve forgotten: “government” isn’t just the state. Real government starts with the covenant man, the family, the church, the school, vocation, community standards, and strong local associations—exactly what once made America resilient. The promo punch: if we want law and order, we must rebuild moral order—pushing back statism and reclaiming responsibility in every sphere, with Christian action that actually reforms lives.

#LawAndOrder #CrimeAndJustice #BiblicalJustice #Restitution #SelfGovernment #DominionMandate #ChristianReconstruction #ChurchAndCulture #FamilyGovernment #ChristianEducation #PushBackStatism #MoralRenewal

Sanctification is not the product of human willpower or self-imposed suffering, as illustrated by the frustrated efforts of monks and hermits who tried to conquer sin by fleeing the world or punishing the body, but is instead the continuing work of God’s grace in the believer; regeneration is God’s act alone, and sanctification is God’s ongoing application of the death and resurrection of Christ to our lives, whereby our self-confidence is shattered, our reliance on grace deepened, and our old nature progressively exposed, crucified, and buried, even as we are continually renewed inwardly after the image of God in knowledge, righteousness, holiness, and dominion. Far from being a merely negative avoidance of temptation, sanctification is a victorious, lifelong process in which sin no longer has dominion, because it is not evaded but put to death through Christ, while new life is steadily strengthened by the Holy Spirit, so that those who are justified more and more die unto sin and rise unto newness of life by the power of God working within them.

One of the evidences of our fallen nature is how deeply pride infects our sins: women may deny snoring, parishioners deny stinginess, and even criminals boast that their crimes have more “dignity” than others’. We are indulgent toward our own faults our sins seem understandable, even admirable but we resent the faults of those around us and wonder why they won’t change to suit us. Like Augustine, whose early prayer was essentially, “Lord, make me pure but not yet,” we often want deliverance from sin only on our terms, not God’s. Yet no amount of self-flattery changes the fact that our lives were not made to suit us but to please God. The catechism is right: our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. The real question is whether we actually want God or whether we are still secretly clinging to the sins that “suit” us.

In “Science and Magic” (Chalcedon Report No. 370), Rushdoony argues that both science and magic, despite appearing opposed, share a common foundation: they treat the world as impersonal, amoral, and subject to manipulation for power. Both seek control rather than moral obedience, and both thrive where God is excluded as a personal, sovereign Lord. Biblical faith, by contrast, begins with a personal God to whom all men are morally accountable, emphasizing redemption, obedience, and service rather than power. When science abandons God while continuing to rely on His created order, it depersonalizes man and reality, dissolving moral categories and reducing crime to mere technical violations rather than rebellion against God’s law. This moral vacuum fosters both tyranny and criminal culture. True dominion, Rushdoony insists, is not amoral power but righteous rule under God’s law, bringing all things into submission to Christ. Without this reordering through Christian faith, science becomes a modern ally of ancient magic, and society drifts steadily toward lawlessness and fear.