by Kenneth Gary Talbot, Ph.D. President & Professor of Theology and Apologetics, Whitefield Theological Seminary Board Member, American Vision, Inc. The late Rev. R. J. Rushdoony once wrote, “Few things are more commonly misunderstood than the nature and meaning of theocracy. It is commonly assumed to be a dictatorial rule by self-appointed men who claim [...]
Full Story »
Opinions have been exchanged over the relationship between Christianity and libertarianism. Some of these have had reference to the heritage of theonomy (or Christian Reconstruction) and the use of the term “libertarianism.” One writer criticizes “professing theonomists” who support the modern Liberty movement with appeal to R.J. Rushdoony’s works: if Rushdoony ever used the term [...]
Full Story »
Last week, Jan Schakowsky, a Democrat Congresswoman from Chicago, defended deficit spending and welfare by advancing the old Social Gospel on the floor of the House. She asked fiscal conservatives four questions and quoted the Bible in support of each one. (Why there was no huge outcry from the ACLU or the Freedom From Religion [...]
Full Story »
Joe Carter of the Gospel Coalition writes in opposition to organized Christian boycotts. He calls boycotts against businesses “coercion” and says that “banding together to cut off commerce to an otherwise licit venture has no obvious biblical warrant.” He says, To clarify, the term boycott here refers to the act of refusing to use, buy, or deal [...]
Full Story »
You know the First Amendment, right? It’s the one about free speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion, right? Nope. I am talking about the First Amendment. That is, the original First Amendment. And it was not about these freedoms—vital as they are—but rather about adequate representation in Congress. A primary concern among some [...]
Full Story »
Sometime around AD 405, a sixteen year-old boy strolling the English seaside was attacked by pirates. They kidnapped him and sold him on the slave market to a chieftain in Northern Ireland who forced him to herd pigs. The young man endured filth, the elements, separation from family, and years of servitude. Yet the open [...]
Full Story »
We are by now familiar with the list of tyrannies that God said Israel’s desired King would impose upon them (1 Sam. 8): conscription for military service and civil service, a military-industrial complex, high taxation, confiscation of property, slavery, etc. (See my previous discussions here and here.) What we learn from the following two chapters [...]
Full Story »
When Jim Wallis declares that he opposes “American exceptionalism,” no one should be surprised. Wallis’s first commitment is Marxism. He started his career in activism not as a church minister nor as a Christian, but as a member of the Students for Democratic Society, a socialist organization originally known as League for Industrial Democracy (LID). [...]
Full Story »
I was intrigued with the headline, “How Can I Break Free From an Addiction to Entertainment?” I was engaged when I read the author’s name, John Piper. But I was disappointed with the answers. I should offer a few of my own. To begin with, Piper’s right, this is a serious problem for Christians (and [...]
Full Story »
In my libertarian activities in Bulgaria I often had to confront questions by secular libertarians about the connection between Christianity and libertarianism. My reply was that one can not be a libertarian without the true source of liberty. And the true source of liberty is Jesus Christ. Therefore I can not be a libertarian without [...]
Full Story »
