
The warfare state sees progress through the destruction of its enemies or their subjection to the state; it sees conflict as the essence of progress. The Biblical perspective is radically different: there is no progress unless there is, first of all, regeneration; a change of heart, life, and nature through Jesus Christ; and then obedience to His law-word. Men may hope for peace through other means, but they will instead feed the forces of war.
America has changed because its faith has changed. It has denied the sovereignty of God for a humanistic law and morality. When the faith was attacked, the church retreated to the "fundamentals" and the "simple gospel." Humanism met little resistance in the sciences, law, economics, art, education, and more until humanism had won the day.
During the twenty-year period covered in this essay, the friendship and collaboration between Rushdoony and Van Til grew slowly. Their relationship started with Rushdoony's gushing praise for Van Til's philosophical system and, over time, it grew into a mature collaborative partnership in which the two men supported one another's work. In this essay we'll see how the two men began corresponding in the 1940s; we'll follow Rushdoony's career as a popularizer and expositor of Van Til's difficult ideas; and, finally, we'll watch as the two men developed into mutually self-reinforcing thinkers and friends determined to aid each other's careers through collaborative publishing projects.
Money, among other things, is a store of wealth. It is property in the same sense that any other physical property is an asset. You can touch it, feel it, smell it, and see it. More importantly, because it is money, it is the most "marketable" of all property because it is easily exchanged for other goods.
Foreign missions, in their original form, not only addressed the culture, they also built an alternative culture to the worldly culture. And that alternative culture of better justice and righteousness than what the world could offer was the "power of attraction" for the multitudes of people.
"Natural" childbirth came into fashion in the 1970s with the practice of husbands or other support persons being present during the labor and birth of their children while assuming the role of labor coach and companion for the birthing mother. Many heralded this as a great advance, and hospitals began to provide nicely decorated birthing rooms so that women could labor and deliver their babies in an atmosphere much closer to a bedroom than a hospital room. Previous hospital practice had involved a woman being moved to a delivery room once she had dilated fully, so this was a big change. The hope was that women would regain the capacity to deliver babies without unnecessary interventions, as they were deemed to be detrimental to both mother and baby. The idea was to let nature take its course.