We live in a very disconcerting time, and I often wonder what difficulties my children and grandchildren will live through. For years, we have noted that all were living off the Christian capital of the past, but with each passing generation our culture seems to race toward moral bankruptcy.
We know the trend will end because it must. There is a crash-and-burn end to every such downward spiral. Sin will not succeed because it cannot; it is the road to death and hell not fulfillment. The consequences of self-destructive moral behavior are built into God’s world because it is one constrained by ethics that proceed from the righteousness of God. Just as the laws of physics constrain us, they serve to condemn us if we flaunt them. If we jump off a cliff, God does not have to look down on us and decree a punishment – it has already been built into His Creation.
The rebellion against God that we are witnessing leads only to an ugly and painful reckoning. It must. The one consequence it cannot lead to is success.
We all have learned hard lessons in life, those we long remember, and we remind ourselves that we will “never do that again.” These life lessons represented a growth in maturity.
Currently, our culture is repudiating the life lessons of its Christian past and acting out irresponsible and immature childish whims. There will be a reckoning. Hopefully, there will be a maturity gained and hard knocks will be used by the Holy Spirit to force men to come face-to-face with the consequences of their foolishness – a drunk-in-the-gutter realization of sin and the error of our ways.
I believe in the inevitable advance of the Kingdom of God and His Christ, so I pray this phase will not progress too far. I hope for the moving of the Spirit and revival of faith and obedience. If that is happening, by God’s grace, in us, it can happen everywhere. Pray for it.
- Mark R. Rushdoony
Mark R. Rushdoony graduated from Los Angeles Baptist College (now The Master’s College) with a B.A. in history in 1975 and was ordained to the ministry in 1995.
He taught junior and senior high classes in history, Bible, civics and economics at a Christian school in Virginia for three years before joining the staff of Chalcedon in 1978. He was the Director of Chalcedon Christian School for 14 years while teaching full time. He also helped tutor all of his children through high school.
In 1998, he became the President of Chalcedon and Ross House Books, and, more recently another publishing arm, Storehouse Press. Chalcedon and its subsidiaries publish many titles plus CDs, mp3s, and an extensive online archive at www.chalcedon.edu. His biography of his father will be published later this year (2024).
He has written scores of articles for Chalcedon’s publications, both the Chalcedon Report and Faith for all of Life. He was a contributing author to The Great Christian Revolution (1991). He has spoken at numerous conferences and churches in the U.S. and abroad.
Mark Rushdoony has lived in Vallecito, California, since 1978. His wife, Darlene, and he have been married since 1976. His youngest son still resides with him. He has three married children and nine grandchildren.