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The Choice

By R. J. Rushdoony
June 08, 2017

In Joshua 24:15, Joshua summons Israel to make up its mind whom they will serve, whether it be God, or something else. He begins with these words, “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve.” We can paraphrase this: “If it seems wrong or harmful to you to serve God with all your being, make a choice now as to whom you will serve.” In other words, stop halting between two opinions.

Centuries later, Elijah confronts the people with a like challenge: “How long halt ye between two opinions? If the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word” (1 Kings 18:21). The spirit of compromise was deep in them.

Today we have a like unwillingness to make the choice. People are unwilling to commit themselves clearly and openly for or against the Lord. They prefer to halt between two opinions and to be responsible for neither.

Throughout history, such a spirit of compromise has been the prelude to the death of a society. When men are unwilling to make a stand for their faith, they quickly disappear into irrelevance, and more earnest men take their places.

We live in an era which calls for courage and resolute choices, not moral indecision. Our crisis is very real, and so too is the summons: “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.”


(excerpted from Word in Season, Vol. 3)

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.

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