Magazine Article
Random Notes, 82
Recently, when our daughter Sharon North was here for a week, and all five children together with us, they were recalling my father and his delight in them.
- R. J. Rushdoony
- Recently, when our daughter Sharon North was here for a week, and all five children together with us, they were recalling my father and his delight in them. Sharon too remembered him walking about reciting the Bible by heart. He knew it all both in English and Armenian, by heart. However, his father before him had the Armenian Bible and liturgy memorized also. A priest in the Church of Armenia, he was first blinded by the Turks, and then, because he continued preaching, killed. He was still a young man, a father of two very young children, a boy and a girl. His wife and daughter soon died also.
- A recently published book, Richard Null's The Aryan Christ, the Secret Life of Carl Jung, deals with what some critics of Jung call his "god complex."This kind of mentality has been present in more than a few of the key figures of the modern age. They deny Christ only to believe themselves to be man's true savior. Perhaps, as our humanistic era continues to collapse, more will be written on this. In the 1930s, an important work described Walt Whitman's pose, his imitation of the supposed style of Biblical prophets, and the portrait of himself as Jesus Christ. The book gained little attention. While reading it between classes at U. C. Berkeley, I attracted the unfavorable comment of a professor who noticed the title!
- Over the years, I have at times thought of writing something on "great men I have known."I would begin by stating that some attain greatness before men, others before God. Such men are usually unknown before men, but by their unswerving faith and obedience, great before God. They have also blessed the lives of many persons, including me. Many come vividly to mind, even after decades have past. Some who had suffered greatly still radiated with peace and gratitude towards the Lord. One of the privileges of our family dinner table was the many visitors my father brought to it, with their marvelous lives and experiences.
- World magazine (May 2, 1998, p. 9) has a story on Vice-President Al Gore summoning Americans to compassion and to charitable giving. But the article reveals the sad fact that Gore's current IRS claim is $353 in such giving! Yes, a sorry record, and hypocritical speaking, but what about our evangelical clergy and leaders? A few years ago, an evangelical leader was intensely critical of what he called my legalism, i.e., my belief in the validity of God's law. I asked him if he tithed, as God's law requires. His answer was that his Spirit-led giving led to better giving. At this, his wife broke into laughter, and he quickly left.
- Insight magazine, March 2, 1998, p. 28f. has an interesting article by Ralph R. Reiland on "Ecoterior Ideologues Push Unabomber Ideas."The article cites Kacynski's participation in environmental groups and the closeness of his ideas and theirs. We should remember that some anti-abortionists advocate murder for abortionists. I have received hate mail from some. Both sides need to oppose the misuse of their ideas and to oppose evil thinking on all sides.
- I recall some years ago congratulating an older man on having attained so advanced an age in good health and with a deepened faith. He called it a mixed blessing because he had lived long enough to see family griefs that left him helpless, developments in the country now beyond his power to cope with, and much, much more. Heaven looked better every day! I am beginning to understand that, although I hope I will have the time and strength to finish some planned writing.
- Back in the early 1930s, my cousin Ed had a dog of mixed ancestry, but part German Shepherd, who had the unusual name of Punch-On. He was a great favorite of all because of his zeal in pursuing jackrabbits. He never caught one, but his zeal never abated, and we all liked him for that. Until my cousin's death, we would at times remember Punch-On and his total zeal in going after jackrabbits.
- One of the great myths of the modern age has been its belief that something like Nature exists. The word "nature"is a collective noun for all the phenomena in creation; it is not itself a being or entity. However, this term has come to be in the modern era a substitute for God, so that many speak of natural law, meaning thereby more than observable data in chemistry or physics. Nature became a substitute for God, a convenient one being non-personal and non-judgmental (i.e., no Last Judgment, a powerful doctrine in any Christian era). However, with Charles Darwin, the myth of evolution, blind, "red in tooth and claw,"replaced Nature. This posed a problem. There was no longer either God or Nature to provide law, and the new source of law became the state, a total power by default and the new source of all law, judgment, good and evil, truth and government! Statism is the true religion of our time, and politicians and bureaucrats are its priesthood. Statism will not be overcome by a merely political program but rather by a religious one, by a return to a Biblical faith grounded on a clear-cut belief in creation. Almost all seminaries, including many claiming to be orthodox, hold to compromising views of Genesis chapters 1-11. Having undermined the foundation, they undercut the Faith and wind up as prophets of the modern state, not of Jesus Christ. Not surprisingly, at a major supposedly orthodox seminary, a recent conference was in essence a call to socialism as savior. The myth of the state as savior is very important in our time. Political campaigns often resemble old-time revivals, and they give us plans of social salvation. But all these revivals by our two revivalist parties enmesh us all the more in evil.
- R. J. Rushdoony
Rev. R.J. Rushdoony (1916–2001), was a leading theologian, church/state expert, and author of numerous works on the application of Biblical law to society. He started the Chalcedon Foundation in 1965. His Institutes of Biblical Law (1973) began the contemporary theonomy movement which posits the validity of Biblical law as God’s standard of obedience for all. He therefore saw God’s law as the basis of the modern Christian response to the cultural decline, one he attributed to the church’s false view of God’s law being opposed to His grace. This broad Christian response he described as “Christian Reconstruction.” He is credited with igniting the modern Christian school and homeschooling movements in the mid to late 20th century. He also traveled extensively lecturing and serving as an expert witness in numerous court cases regarding religious liberty. Many ministry and educational efforts that continue today, took their philosophical and Biblical roots from his lectures and books.