Condition of Christianity (Christian Reconstruction and the Future)

https://cr101radio.com/podcast/condition-of-christianity-christian-reconstruction-and-the-future

Rushdoony argues that the book of Acts shows persecution is inevitable wherever Christianity becomes effective. The real issue is always lordship by what power and by what name things are done. The early church was not persecuted for immorality or disorder, but because it manifested God’s power outside state control, making Christ a rival to Caesar. Any ruling order that sees itself as man’s savior will react with hostility to a gospel that offers salvation apart from the state.

Tracing Acts, he shows how rulers and even religious leaders resisted the apostles because fallen man wants to define law and morality for himself. Rome treated the church as a rival government, responding first with bans and licensing, later with state control of the church, and eventually with “toleration” that allows Christianity only if it stays irrelevant. When relevance returns, persecution follows through defamation, lawsuits, and legal pressure. Paul’s sermon in Acts 17 provides the answer: God is Creator and sovereign, nations exist by His decree, and Christ’s resurrection guarantees judgment. That certainty provokes rage in the ungodly. Rushdoony concludes that persecution is not surprising; lukewarm faith is. Empires pass away, but Christ endures and the church must choose obedience under Christ rather than safety under Caesar.

Written amid war, upheaval, and natural disaster, Psalm 46 proclaims the unshakable hope of God’s people: “The Lord of hosts is with us.” Though nations rage and the earth itself seems unstable, God remains our refuge and strength. This psalm declares the heart of Christmas Immanuel, God with us the living God who governs history, sustains His church, and calls us to be still and trust His sovereign rule.

Sometimes it seems Washington’s planners compete to find the most absurd ways to spend our money. Take Baltimore’s “Block” of strip joints and adult shops: $338,000 is being spent to make the area more accessible with tree plantings and wheelchair cuts apparently ensuring the physically disabled can comfortably visit porno shops! While satire aside, one wonders if resources couldn’t go toward more practical projects like park benches for the homeless or a museum celebrating disappearing Americana like farm mules or outhouses. Bureaucratic priorities often feel out of touch with common sense, and while humor helps us tolerate the madness, the underlying question remains: are we running out of meaningful ways to invest public funds? #GovernmentSpending #Bureaucracy #WastefulSpending #PublicFunds #WashingtonDC #FiscalResponsibility #Satire #CommunityDevelopment #HUD #Priorities

When Black Panthers marched into the California assembly in 1967, the spectacle accomplished little for them but it handed legislators the excuse they needed to pass the Mulford Act, a gun-control law supposedly aimed only at preventing such incidents. Yet the first man arrested under it was no radical but a decent citizen, a former legislative candidate who carried an unloaded gun for protection while driving through dangerous neighborhoods at 4 a.m. Like all gun-control measures, the law punished the righteous while doing nothing to restrain the lawless. And even as innocent men were charged, politicians pushed for still stricter laws proving that America’s problem is not a lack of legislation but a lack of Christian character. Laws cannot grow food, end poverty, or make a man righteous, but unjust laws can destroy peace, punish the godly, and burden the nation like the plagues of Egypt. What we need is not more laws, but more righteousness, more freedom, and more godly men.

Gnosticism teaches that evil lies in the material world and that salvation comes through secret knowledge, not through Christ’s finished work. It rejects the Old Testament, God’s law, and moral responsibility, replacing grace with human insight and autonomy.

Though ancient, Gnosticism lives on today in modern art, philosophy, theology, and ethics where immediacy replaces mediation, feelings replace truth, and man replaces God. Against this, Scripture declares a God who speaks, commands, judges, and saves and who is nearer to us than we are to ourselves.

Modern society talks endlessly about “law and order,” yet we increasingly separate the two and the result is tyranny. Order without true, God-given law is the order of the graveyard or the gangster: silent streets, rigid control, and no justice. From communist dictatorships to local governments empowering criminals to “keep peace,” we see examples of lawless order everywhere order that suppresses righteousness rather than upholding it. America now faces the danger of restoring order without restoring law, a tactic long used by revolutionaries who create chaos so people will accept any authority that promises peace, even if it is ungodly. Scripture warns us that real justice is impartial and rooted in God alone (Deut. 1:17). When law and order are torn apart, what remains is tyranny. The urgent question facing our nation is simple: Will we demand godly law and order or settle for the deadly counterfeit?

Rushdoony argues that hospitality and charity are moral institutions, commanded by God and central to biblical faith not optional niceties. From Israel to the early church, caring for strangers and fellow believers was essential to covenant life and survival, especially under persecution. Scripture commands hospitality, but also sets clear boundaries: charity is not unconditional and must honor discipline, doctrine, and responsibility.

Because Christian hospitality creates a real community outside the state, it has always provoked hostility. Just as Rome persecuted the early church for its independent charity, modern governments increasingly regulate, restrict, or criminalize Christian care whether feeding the poor, disciplining members, or educating children claiming exclusive authority over welfare, morality, and judgment. Legal persecution, he warns, is often meticulous and “lawful.”

At root is a conflict between two kingdoms: the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man. Biblical freedom flows from Christ’s atonement and self-government under God’s law; statist “freedom” relies on coercion and control. The choice before Christians is stark: conversion or coercion. Either society is re-Christianized through faith and action, or the church will increasingly be pressured into silence and submission.

The Puritans accomplished astonishing things not because of numbers, but because of conviction men like Richard Rogers, who when accused of being “too precise,” simply answered, “I serve a precise God.” They believed every word God spoke demanded obedience, and as Christopher Love warned, “If you break God’s law, God will break your peace.” Today millions fill churches, yet the old power is gone; pious sentiment has replaced active, disciplined faith. Modern believers want God to be precise with His blessings while refusing a precise God who commands their lives. Joshua’s fiery warning still stands: the holy and jealous God will not indulge casual faith; if we forsake Him, He will “turn and do… hurt” even after doing us good. In a generation content with comfort, the piercing question remains: Have you given God reason to break your peace?

Psalm 33:12 declares that the nation whose God is the Lord is blessed but the implication is equally clear: the nation that rejects Him is disinherited, judged, and left to be trampled underfoot. Our modern world, having severed itself from God, now walks squarely in that judgment, and nothing will change until men return to Him in obedience. Scripture teaches that the meek those tamed and yoked to God’s will will inherit the earth, while Revelation warns that the ungodly will be broken and dispossessed. Yet even in the midst of judgment, signs of blessing are rising: Christian schools, faithful ministries, and renewed dedication to God’s Word. The real question each of us must answer is this: Are we aligning ourselves with the world of blessing or with the world of curses?

According to Scripture, the result isn’t neutrality it’s chaos. When man’s reason, experience, or majority opinion becomes the source of law, God is quietly dethroned, the state takes His place, and truth is reduced to compromise and expediency. This episode exposes how even well-meaning theologians traded Moses for Plato, revelation for rationalism, and ended up empowering statism, relativism, and moral collapse. The Bible offers no middle ground: either God’s revealed law governs life, society, and science or there is no law at all. To reject Moses is to reject the God who orders the world.

#BiblicalLaw #NaturalLawDebate #Theonomy #Rushdoony #VanTil #ChristianWorldview #Statism #Humanism #GodsLaw #TruthOverCompromise