What Cannot Be Shaken
These are difficult times because things are being shaken out. The key is to understand that if we are part of Christ’s Kingdom, we are part of what cannot be shaken.
- Mark R. Rushdoony
It is a new year but 2021 doesn’t suddenly seem better than 2020, does it? The same problems persist and new ones arise, year after year.
Many of you remember the fall of the USSR which was officially complete in 1991. Many hailed the era of the US as the only super-power. Then came the dot-com bubble of the ‘90s and a false sense of good times and endless prosperity. Yet, a decade after the fall of the USSR came 9/11 and a series of wars against terrorists that went badly. Our old problems merely morphed into a new set of troubles and our optimism faded.
I have often heard well-meaning individuals predict the certainty of God’s judgment on America for its sins. That is true, but the judgment of God takes many forms. It isn’t necessarily an obliterating, destructive end. Judgment may just as likely be a long period of stagnation, a multitude of problems, a failure to thrive, and as string of frustrations. We see this in the lives of individuals who make consistently irresponsible ore even wicked choices. Their judgment may be to live with the consequences of their sins. I believe in judgment, but we ought not to assume it is best represented by its most dramatic historical examples.
Please read Hebrews 12. It compares the new Messianic era to the generation at Sinai, most of who perished in the wilderness before the Promised Land was even in view. Yet, a principle of God’s working is laid out for us in verses 24-29. It describes the work of God in history as a shaking of heaven and earth “that those things which cannot be shaken may remain” (v. 27).
Those words help us understand our time and the last 2,000 years of history. God shakes out all that is not part of His Kingdom which “cannot be moved” (v. 28). Therefore, it behooves us to “serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” (v. 28) because we realize the truth that “our God is a consuming fire” (v. 29).
These are difficult times because things are being shaken out. The key is to understand that if we are part of Christ’s Kingdom, we are part of what cannot be shaken.
The shaking of God is a frightening thing, but a necessary part of the advance of His Kingdom, which continues on the course its Lord has established.
- 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.