Reclaiming the Human Realm from Sin
The Christmas season is interesting to me because it is a wholly Christian event that the world finds it must acknowledge. No matter how many superficial traditions we add, the meaning of Christmas is acknowledged to have originated in an historical event two thousand years ago that has relevance today. The fact that this event cannot be ignored is very telling.
- Mark R. Rushdoony
The Christmas season is interesting to me because it is a wholly Christian event that the world finds it must acknowledge. No matter how many superficial traditions we add, the meaning of Christmas is acknowledged to have originated in an historical event two thousand years ago that has relevance today. The fact that this event cannot be ignored is very telling.
Christmas is when we celebrate the incarnation of God in human flesh. This was not something even Jews were expecting. They expected a Messiah from God or of God, but not God come in human flesh. God fulfilled His promise in a way even the faithful could not anticipate.
The incarnation is rightly seen as God becoming man so that, as man, He could be man’s sin-bearer in atonement. But God incarnate was a new and unexpected category of human thought, one that the dualistic, Gnostic philosophy of the time vigorously resisted for centuries (as does our modern dualistic thought). My father once referred to the incarnation as God’s “invasion” of human history to break the curse and reclaim the human realm from the grip of sin.
This is the same picture of reclamation given to us in the “Kingdom of God.” Jesus, the Lord of that Kingdom, the King of kings, is extending His authority and reclaiming all things and all people. One day the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
So yes, something big happened at Bethlehem two millennia ago and, yes, it cannot be ignored. God can and does force the course of history in ways we cannot imagine. Our purpose is to stand on the side of our Lord and His Kingdom, which will last forever. As citizens, we do our duty to reclaim what is rightfully Christ’s. Christian Reconstruction is just another way of saying we reclaim by faithful obedience the place for Jesus that we profess with our words.
- 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. He has four married children and nine grandchildren.