Oath and Covenant
Oaths were once basic to society. No covenant could be made without curses. Every time a covenant was made you invoked curses upon yourself for disobedience. If two men made a covenant together they would say may such and such a thing happen to me if I am faithless to this covenant. And when man made a covenant with God either God pronounced it and they said amen to it or they themselves were required to say it.
- R. J. Rushdoony
Oaths were once basic to society. No covenant could be made without curses. Every time a covenant was made you invoked curses upon yourself for disobedience. If two men made a covenant together they would say may such and such a thing happen to me if I am faithless to this covenant. And when man made a covenant with God either God pronounced it and they said amen to it or they themselves were required to say it.
- 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.