Chalcedon: While Visions of World Transformation Dance in our Heads

But the saints of the most high shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever. Daniel 7:18

A fundamentalist Bible teacher, in criticizing .Chalcedon and Christian reconstruction, observed, “The Bible does require Christians to exercise dominion, but only after the Second Advent.” Apparently he had not been reading the book of Daniel in preparation for his weekly Bible teaching. Daniel 7:13, 14 clearly disclose that the earthly dominion formally bestowed on Christ occurred at his ascension. The four beasts, and the exceeding cruel beast of v. 25, represent world kingdoms and leaders of the ancient Near East (Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece, Rome). It was during the combined tenure of these kings and kingdoms (2:44)—not of kings and kingdoms in the twentieth or twenty-first century—that Christ would receive his regal dominion and transmit that dominion to his saints, his vicegerents in the earth (7:22, 26, 27).1

The Transformational Sequence

Secular reporters who interview us Christian reconstructionists are generally most interested in hearing about only one main feature of our vision: civil law. They are considerably less interested in our Calvinism, pre-suppositionalism, and dominionism, which they consider irrelevant and arcane. They try to verify that we support the Biblical penal Gode and the criminalizing of homosexuality, adultery, witchcraft, etc. Because they are usually autonomous rebels, they (like most of the modern church) tend to find these clearly expressed Biblical views repugnant. This leads them naturally to pose questions about the kind of society we Christian reconstructionists envision. They are invariably frightened of a Christian reconstructionist political coup, despite our patient and persistent declarations that we support godly social change as an effect of divine supernatural regeneration of the individual heart of man, not as the effect of a hostile Christian political takeover. Secularist critics of all stripes tend to make this blunder about us Christian reconstructionists because they cannot perceive the possibility of social change apart from political maneuvering. They know we fervently support Christian social change. They know they support secular social change. Because they have abandoned hope in godly transformation and have thus adopted hope only in political transformation, they assume anyone who advocates social change must necessarily intend to harness politics as a vehicle to impose transformational social policy.

Theirs is a dangerous miscalculation. We Christian reconstructionists—unlike liberals of all sorts, and unlike pietists who abhor the Christian task of social change—support social change as the result of godly regeneration. For us, long-term social transformation operates from the individual outward to society, from the bottom to the top. Secularists do not grasp the salient point that by the time Christianization redeems the state, the transformation will be almost complete.

Chalcedon is widely—and correctly—identified as the world’s ideational fountainhead of Christian reconstruction. This means we are passionately dedicated to the godly transformation of the world by means of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the efficacy of the Holy Spirit, the obedience of the saints, and the application of the law-word of God to all spheres of life.2 We do not, however, believe it is within our power to transform society any more than we believe it is within our power to regenerate a lost soul. What is in our power, by God’s grace, is obedience. We cannot change the world, but we do obey the King, alert to his promises that our obedience elicits world-transforming blessings (Dt. 28:1-14; Rom. 4:13). Only the sovereign Triune God can engender regeneration, reformation and revival. But the faithful saints can—and must—press his claims in all spheres in the earth, in faith expecting the fulfillment of the pledge that “the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High...” (Dan. 7:27).

Chalcedon’s Agenda for World Transformation

As the center of the re-Christianization of all society, what is Chalcedon’s agenda for godly transformation? First, Chalcedon lays the theological groundwork for world transformation. For thirty years we have produced epochal, landmark works of Christian scholarship, not arcane, ivory- tower scholarship only for scholars, but relevant scholarship for Christians in all walks of life—like R. J. Rushdoony’s Institutes of Biblical Law, Politics of Guilt and Pity, and Foundations of Social Order, and works of other notable writers. The monthly Chalcedon Report and occasional Journal of Christian Reconstruction constitute the leading evocative, cutting-edge periodicals in the task of the West’s re-Christianization. Chalcedon and Ross House Books intend only to increase the output of books reestablishing the foundations of Christian civilization.

Second, Chalcedon identifies and instructs key “influence agents.” The Chalcedon Report, for example, is targeted for the very people positioned to reshape this and the next generation—pastors and other church leaders; businessmen; home school mothers and students; college and seminary professors and students; artists; media agents; doctors; politicians; economists; salesmen; Christian day-school administrators, teachers, and students; lawyers; theologians; and many, many more. We intend soon to host regional conferences inviting many of these “influence agents,” inculcating the Christian reconstructionist Weltanschauung (world view, or conception of life or existence). They in turn will influence an entire generation for the sake of godly Christianity.

Third, Chalcedon supports specific, leading world- transforming agents. For instance, Samuel Blumenfeld, identified as “Public Enemy #1” by the NEA, is a Chalcedon extension staff member. His Educational Letter, eye-opening books, and numerous lectures are generating an explosive reaction against the modern statist educational system and a re- installation of the Christian family as the prime agent of education. Peter Hammond and Frontline Fellowship traverse the war-torn African continent with the message of salvation in Jesus Christ—individual and social. They are the main Christian obstacle to Marxist and Islamic faiths in what may be the pivotal continent for the next century. John Lofton, editor of the Lofton Letter, and one of the leading Christian social commentators of our era, regularly articulates and defends the Christian reconstructionist message on TV, radio, and in news magazines. There are many others Chalcedon assists and will begin to assist (like some featured in this issue), and we intend to highlight their world-transforming work in due time.

Information, influence, implementation. From a human standpoint, this formula is unbeatable.

What Are the Stakes?

The vision of Enlightenment liberalism3 that has governed the West for roughly 300 years is fading before our eyes.4 It is not merely fading; it is being eclipsed by rival visions—Islam, New Age, secular capitalism... and the historic orthodox Christian Faith. The question now is, in ours and the next generation, which vision will emerge triumphant? We know from the Bible that Christ’s kingdom will advance inevitably in human history,5 but we are not certain the upcoming generations will be the golden ages of that advancement. All we can do is pray—and work. One thing is certain: if we are delinquent in our calling to press the claims of Christ in all spheres and exert godly dominion in the earth, that transformational kingdom advancement for which we long will not materialize anytime soon. Instead, we Christians will be relegated, as we have been for the last 150 years or so until recently, to the societal fringes—including slavery (Dt. 28:15- 68). As in the case of Zedekiah of old, our children will be slain (socially or literally) before our eyes, and we will be blinded and led captive to the Babylon of modern autonomous man (2 Kin. 25:6, 7).

Chalcedon does not intend to see our children perish and to be led in fetters to the humanist (or Islamic or New Age or secular capitalist) prisons. We are princes of the King (Rom. 8:17), and we intend to exert dominion. We cannot do it without your help. We require, from the human perspective, the four M’s, three of which we already possess: minds, message, and manpower.

But we cannot accomplish the goal without the fourth M—money. If you are devoted to the godly reconstructive task, support Chalcedon generously and sacrificially.

The stakes are nothing less than the godly transformation of the world in the next few generations, or the marginalization and persecution of Christianity.

Which will it be?

1 See David Chilton, Paradise Restored (Tyler, TX, 1985), 67-75 and passim.

2 R. J. Rushdoony, Institutes of Biblical Law (Nutley, NJ, 1973).

3 Hayden V. White, “Editor’s Introduction,” in Robert Anchor, The Enlightenment Tradition (Berkeley, 1967), ix, 7.

4 Andrew Sandlin, “Epistemologically Self-Conscious Apostasy: Half a Cheer for Stanley Fish,” Chalcedon Report, January 1995, 10-13.

5 Kenneth Gentry, He Shall Have Dominion (Tyler, TX, 1992).