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.

Rushdoony argues that the future of society rises or falls with the family. Scripture places the family not the church or the state at the center of social power, entrusting it with education, charity, inheritance, property, and the training of children. When these responsibilities shift to the state, freedom declines and statism grows. By contrast, when families reclaim these callings through Christian schooling, mutual care, and faithful stewardship (especially through the tithe), society is renewed from the ground up.

He insists the family must be understood biblically, not through humanistic or evolutionary categories. Humanist thought assumes conflict, autonomy, and self-fulfillment, turning marriage into bondage and freedom into indulgence. Scripture teaches the opposite: true freedom is found in responsibility under God, where husband and wife are “heirs together of the grace of life.” The family is not biological accident or social convenience, but a God-ordained religious institution reflecting Christ and the Church.The Reformation proved that family reform reshapes civilization altering education, economics, charity, and even the church itself. Today’s revival of homeschooling and Christian family life signals real hope, even as secular families collapse under statism and moral decay. The call is not political but covenantal: re-Christianize the family, live out God’s law in daily life, and trust that faithful households small though they seem are God’s chosen instruments for commanding the future.

Biblical law places the family at the center of society because God entrusts it with decisive powers: children (the future), property, inheritance, education, and welfare. When these are taken over by the state, society weakens. True renewal comes as families reclaim these responsibilities through Christian education, care for their own, and faithful stewardship.

Rushdoony argues that this reclamation fails unless families are intellectually and spiritually grounded. Worldviews built on chance, evolution, or inevitable conflict make struggle metaphysical and unavoidable turning marriage, society, and economics into battlegrounds that require state control. By contrast, creationism affirms God’s sovereign order, so conflict is moral, not inevitable, and can be governed by God’s law.

The family is therefore not merely biological or social but a religious institution, created to serve God’s kingdom. Husband and wife are “heirs together of the grace of life,” called to harmony and obedience. The future of society depends not on politics but on re-Christianizing the family, restoring its God-given authority, and living out covenant faithfulness.

Rushdoony argues that only the Christian family has a future because it alone lives by God’s law rather than statist planning, making the family—not church or state—the primary engine of social renewal through its biblical duties of provision, education, charity, inheritance, discipline, and dominion; drawing from Scripture and history, he insists that neglect of family law hollows out faith, fuels statism, and erodes freedom, while practices like family-based care, homeschooling, tithing, and mutual responsibility reclaim power from the state and restore liberty under God; rejecting humanistic categories that redefine freedom as autonomy, he presents marriage and family as God-ordained spheres of responsibility that produce true freedom, arguing that the Reformation’s real revolution was family reform and that today’s revival of Christian households—small, faithful, and God-centered—is the decisive force that will shape the future and resist the culture of death. #ChristianFamily #BiblicalLaw #DominionMandate #FamilyGovernment #Homeschool #ChristianEducation #Tithing #AntiStatism #Rushdoony #Reformation #BiblicalWorldview #KingdomOfGod

Rushdoony contends that biblical law makes the family the primary power-center of society—entrusted by God with children, property, inheritance, education, and welfare—and that modern statism systematically attacks and replaces these jurisdictions by denying creation, order, and harmony in favor of evolutionary conflict and centralized control; he argues that only belief in the sovereign Creator, predestination, and a God-ordained harmony of interests can empower families to function as history’s strongest social force, whereas Darwinism, Enlightenment humanism, and socialist planning inevitably produce anti-family ideologies, gender conflict, nihilism, and tyranny, making the re-Christianization of the family—not politics—the true key to reclaiming the future. #BiblicalLaw #FamilyGovernment #Theonomy #ChristianWorldview #Creationism #Dominion #Statism #Rushdoony #ChristianFamily #Education #Homeschool #KingdomOfGod

Rushdoony argues that the removal of the Ten Commandments from public schools exposed a basic truth: all law is religious. While the courts rejected biblical law for fear students might obey it, schools freely promote Humanism as a state religion. He says decades of educational “reform” have failed because statist education is built on false premises; pouring in more money only deepens the collapse. Since man is made in God’s image, only Christian education can truly succeed.

He calls for Christian reconstruction beginning with individuals and families reclaiming God-given responsibilities—education, welfare, property, inheritance, and child-training—using the tithe to fund Christian institutions rather than compromise. Through real examples (church-run schools, rescue missions, homeschooling families, community care for the needy), he shows how grassroots Christian obedience outperforms state systems. As believers obey God, power naturally shifts from the state back to the people under Christ, provoking resistance—but he ends confident that faithful action will prevail: “trust and obey,” for Christ overcomes the world.

Rushdoony argues that only the Christian family has a future because it alone lives by God’s law rather than statist planning, making the family—not church or state—the primary engine of social renewal through its biblical duties of provision, education, charity, inheritance, discipline, and dominion; drawing from Scripture and history, he insists that neglect of family law hollows out faith, fuels statism, and erodes freedom, while practices like family-based care, homeschooling, tithing, and mutual responsibility reclaim power from the state and restore liberty under God; rejecting humanistic categories that redefine freedom as autonomy, he presents marriage and family as God-ordained spheres of responsibility that produce true freedom, arguing that the Reformation’s real revolution was family reform and that today’s revival of Christian households—small, faithful, and God-centered—is the decisive force that will shape the future and resist the culture of death. #ChristianFamily #BiblicalLaw #DominionMandate #FamilyGovernment #Homeschool #ChristianEducation #Tithing #AntiStatism #Rushdoony #Reformation #BiblicalWorldview #KingdomOfGod

Rushdoony, Blumenfeld, and Otto Scott argue that homeschooling works so well because it’s essentially one-on-one tutoring: parents know their children, can hold them accountable, and can move faster without the time-wasting and peer-driven dynamics of institutional schooling. They say homeschoolers tend to become strong readers, good conversationalists, and adult-oriented, while public schools prioritize socialization and conformity.

They also stress that homeschooling strengthens families and even improves parents, since teaching pushes adults to keep learning. Legally and politically, they warn that the education establishment will try to regulate or restrict homeschooling, so parents must organize and defend their rights. Their conclusion: Christian schools and homeschools cultivate a more independent, capable generation with real leadership potential.

Rushdoony and Blumenfeld warn that public schooling is a means of controlling the future by shaping children away from Christian faith. Blumenfeld says students face four major risks: academic (functional illiteracy), spiritual (humanist/anti-Christian influences), moral (drugs, promiscuity, blasphemy), and physical (violence). They argue parents are mistaken to assume their child will be unharmed or serve as an effective “witness” without being damaged.

Their proposed response is to remove children to Christian schools or homeschooling and then withdraw financial support from the public system, even through legal action if needed. They close by urging Christians to accept real sacrifice to preserve faith, freedom, and strong families."

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.