Self-conscious Obedience to God
Christian Reconstruction is the self-conscious obedience to God as the way of blessing.
- Mark R. Rushdoony
The world we live in is constantly changing. Throughout my youth and early adulthood, the Soviet Union was thought to be the great threat that would dictate world events. Then it was Russia or China or Islamic Fundamentalism. Each of those has shown vulnerabilities in recent years. The United States, though militarily strong, has renounced all fiscal sanity and creates Federal Reserve currency to fund its actions. (The price of precious metals reflects the decline of the US dollar.) That fiscal responsibility is our vulnerability.
The uncertainty of the world is reflected in the polarized political climate. Some years ago, Rush Limbaugh described our political climate as a “cold civil war.” We are at each other’s throats and political speech is devoid of reason or logic, reduced to vicious ad hominem attacks on any who disagrees.
Culture is in chaos because it is devoid of any unifying factors. Christian ethics once held Christendom together, but now the exercise of power over others, not a common moral code, dominates. I was an adolescent when I heard my father say there is no community when there is no communion of people with a like faith. People today cannot agree on what is good, right, just, or even true, because postmodernism claims reality is only a social construct.
Today’s chaos is the result of the repudiation of Christian faith. That is why you find a common bond in a good church. Humanistic culture is failing; that is what we are seeing. But that means something must replace it. That is part of the message of Christian Reconstruction, that self-conscious obedience to God is the way of blessing.
There are many things we cannot fix in our culture. One of those is man himself. But our prayers should be that the Holy Spirit regenerates in a great revival. Perhaps the failures we now see are setting the stage for just such a change.
But in the meantime, we serve God as new creatures in Christ, and pledge loyalty as citizens of His Kingdom.
- 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.