Faith and Action: The Collected Articles of R. J. Rushdoony, 1965-2004

In “The Power of Heresy,” Rushdoony warns that false belief often proves more influential than faithful theology, using Marcion as a historic example of how heresy undermines the unity of Scripture, separating law from grace, creation from redemption, and the Old Testament from the New. Marcion’s rejection of God’s law, his reduction of God to love alone, and his implicit dualism paved the way for antinomianism, dispensationalism, and moral confusion—errors Rushdoony sees echoed in much of modern evangelicalism. When law is treated as evil or irrelevant, grace becomes sentimentalism, justice is denied, and atonement itself is emptied of meaning, leaving no coherent reason for holiness or obedience. Orthodoxy, by contrast, affirms one sovereign God, one unified Bible, and one redemptive purpose in which law and gospel, justice and love, creation and salvation are inseparable. The real question Rushdoony presses is stark and unavoidable: are today’s churches shaped by historic Christianity—or by a baptized form of Marcionism?

#PowerOfHeresy #Marcionism #LawAndGospel #BiblicalUnity #AgainstAntinomianism #ChristianOrthodoxy #GodsLaw #Atonement #CreationalFaith

Too often, we let fear of words charges of racism or bigotry paralyze us while taxpayers fund groups that fail obligations yet sue the government and receive federal support, highlighting how timidity in confronting abuses undermines both freedom and fiscal responsibility. #FreedomOfSpeech #TaxpayerBurden #StopAbuse #NameCalling #ProtectLiberty

In “Law and Sin,” Rushdoony argues that God’s law addresses real, completed acts of sin rather than attempting to prevent evil through coercive control, thereby strictly limiting the authority of courts and the state to punishing criminal actions after the fact and not governing intentions, thoughts, or potential wrongdoing. He contends that humanistic statism seeks to usurp God’s role by trying to eliminate the possibility of sin through regulation and bureaucracy, transforming society from rule by law into rule by agencies that treat freedom itself as criminal. By attempting to make men “good” through preventive control, the state becomes a false god, extending its power over all of life and enslaving the righteous along with the wicked. True law, Rushdoony insists, flows only from God’s sovereign word, and when men abandon it they become shoeless—without rights—under man-made authority. The central issue is therefore lordship: whether men will submit to God’s law, which restrains evil while preserving freedom, or to the state, which seeks total control in the name of preventing sin.

#LawAndSin #BiblicalLaw #AgainstStatism #GodsSovereignty #RuleOfLaw #ChristianLiberty #FalseGodState #Theonomy

There is evidence of a real return to faith in the United States, particularly within evangelical churches, which have grown significantly from 1972 to 1982 while modernistic denominations have declined; this growth is accompanied by an increase in Christian schools, agencies addressing social problems from a Biblical perspective, and efforts to influence politics and economics according to faith, suggesting that a true return to religion involves both spiritual commitment and obedience, offering the promise of renewed freedom and responsible self-governance. #ReturnToFaith #EvangelicalGrowth #BiblicalObedience #ChristianEducation #FaithInAction #SpiritualRenewal #FreedomAndFaith

In “Covenants and Law,” Rushdoony argues that the church’s abandonment of God’s covenantal law in favor of humanistic law has fueled the suicide of Western civilization by enthroning man’s autonomy—self-law—in place of God’s theonomy. He insists that law and grace are inseparable because every covenant requires law: God’s covenant with man is an act of sovereign grace in which divine law defines the life of grace, not its negation. By rejecting Biblical law, modern theology freed the state from accountability to God while demanding greater submission to civil authority, allowing positivist law to declare the state the sole source of justice. Rushdoony critiques figures like Kuyper for grounding civil authority in “common grace” while permitting autonomous lawmaking, a move that ultimately empowered revolutionary statism. Liberalism, pragmatism, and materialism then erased absolute values, replacing God with the state as lawgiver and paving the way for modern despotisms. True freedom, he concludes, cannot be found in free will, democracy, or pietism, but only in covenantal obedience to Christ, where grace and law stand together and “the Son” alone makes men free.

#CovenantTheology #GodsLaw #LawAndGrace #Theonomy #AgainstAutonomy #ChristOurKing #BiblicalCovenant #TrueFreedom

Through our taxes, we are unwitting patrons of the arts, funding millions for projects many consider frivolous or objectionable erotic shows, feminist journals, or ex-convict art programs while contributing to a growing national deficit that threatens economic stability and, ultimately, freedom. #ArtsFunding #TaxpayerBurden #FiscalResponsibility #StopWastefulSpending #ProtectFreedom

In “Autonomous Man,” Rushdoony argues that modern humanism seeks an autonomous universe—independent of God, law, and covenant—replacing God’s justice with man-made “social justice” grounded in the social contract rather than divine law. Once justice is defined by human will—whether elite, majority, or ideological—it becomes endlessly malleable, producing competing and contradictory moralities and labeling godly obedience as “antisocial.” The attempt to escape God’s authority inevitably dissolves all authority, leading not to true social order but to anarchism, fragmentation, and death, since autonomy for the creature is an illusion achievable only in the grave. Scripture teaches that justice and righteousness are found only in God’s law, which restores, restrains evil, and gives meaning and responsibility to life. Rejecting God’s law does not free man; it guarantees disaster, while obedience to Christ promises victory, dominion, and the ultimate subjection of all things to His reign.

#AutonomousMan #GodsLaw #TrueJustice #RejectHumanism #NoSocialJusticeMyth #ChristIsLord #BiblicalWorldview #DominionUnderGod

U.S. foreign aid and loans often fund oppressive regimes, military projects, and even human-rights abuses abroad, effectively financing tyranny, slavery, and the enemies of freedom, while lacking proper oversight, making our generosity a tool for global harm rather than good. #StopFinancingTyranny #ForeignAidReform #ProtectFreedom #AccountabilityMatters #NoAidForOppression

In “Selling Out Christ,” Rushdoony warns that modern churches risk betraying Christ by surrendering their independence to the state through licensure, regulation, and especially voucher schemes for Christian schools. The early church rejected all state control because Christ alone is King, and Christian freedom—including tax exemption—was won through costly resistance, not compromise. Voucher programs, he argues, inevitably bring state control, function as a form of socialism, and are a strategic payoff to neutralize the growing Christian school movement. By accepting state money, churches exchange lordship for convenience, repeating Judas’s betrayal in a modern form. True Christian institutions, Rushdoony insists, must be sustained by the faithful themselves, for dependence on the state always ends in the loss of freedom, faith, and obedience to Christ.

#ChristIsLord #NoStateControl #SellingOutChrist #ChristianSchools #FaithOverFunding #NoVouchers #KingdomOfGod #ChurchIndependence #ObedienceNotCompromise

History is made by people, not abstract “social forces”; men and women of faith and action shape events, drive progress, and give purpose to civilizations, while the modern notion that vague forces dictate outcomes undermines human responsibility, freedom, and the Biblical understanding of man as God’s active creation. #HistoryMakers #FaithAndAction #HumanResponsibility #BiblicalWorldview #FreedomOfAction