The Centrality of the Family
The importance of the family in Scripture appears from the stress on genealogy. When the Bible stressed genealogy, it stresses the fact that, in God’s sight, the history of the family is all important, that the family transmits more historically than does the state, or any other institution, and because the family transmits so much, the history of the family is important.
- R. J. Rushdoony
If the state or the church were the most important thing in the world then we would have to say that some people have a calling and the rest of us don't, so that we are left out of the most important sphere of life, but God has so ordained it that every one of us can be a part of the most important sphere of life, the family.
- 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.