Gary concludes his response to a recent Wallbuilders show with Mark David Hall on the influence of R.J. Rushdoony. In the worldview known as historicism, the laws of history are derived from history and change with history. Law becomes a function of history. There is no unchanging metaphysical order above history or outside of history that somehow provides structure to history. History and its law [...]
In my three-part podcast (see here and here for the first and second) about the impact of Rousas Rushdoony (1916-2001), I mentioned, contrary to some, that his writings have had a significant impact on much of Christian thought today, directly and indirectly. As a sort of hero of Christian education, Rushdoony’s basic ideas have directly or indirectly affected many conservative Protestants in Nort [...]
Gary continues his response to a recent episode from David Barton featuring historian Mark David Hall. The establishment—and here I include the secular media—cannot grasp just how much impact that fewer than a dozen men with word processors can have. (In the case of Rushdoony, not even a word processor, which did not exist when he wrote his major works. He uses only an ink well, a steel-tip pen wi [...]
Gary begins a series of three podcasts that respond to a recent show from David Barton’s Wallbuilders organization on Christian Nationalism. Can you imagine a young Jewish man coming up to Jesus and saying, “You know, Jesus, if you would just drop some of your outrageous claims and your moral indictments based on the law as it is written, I might just follow you. The rest I could do without. [...]
The Christian Right got involved in politics late. In fact, they got dragged into the process kicking and screaming. For decades they were told that “religion and politics don’t mix” and “we should only preach the gospel.” That worked at a time when there was something of a general Christian consensus. But those days were long gone by the 1970s with the Roe v. Wade pro-abortion decision that turne [...]
Now that the eclipse has come and gone, prophecy speculators have refocused their attention on the Middle East. There is no need to speculate beyond the historical boundaries of Ezekiel’s day to force the names of these ancient nations to find a place on a modern-day map to conform them to today’s geo-political landscape. Iain Duguid’s comments are helpful in accounting for the historical realitie [...]
One of the advantages of being operated on April 15th was that I was under anesthesia and could not hear or read anything about the latest prophetic nonsense being churned out by end-time prophecy teachers and preachers. What a relief! Unfortunately, it didn’t last long. The usual suspects like John Hagee, Ray Comfort, Jack Hibbs, Joel Richardson, Joel Rosenberg, and many more are revving up the p [...]
Gary discusses tactics of Christian resistance that can be learned from Saul Alinsky. When students graduated from the Academy in Geneva, they were assigned various posts, sometimes in France. These were dangerous trips; so dangerous that when the permanent ministers of Geneva went to France they left their families behind, and the city allowed those families to keep the ministerial house and even [...]
Every time American Vision promotes the 1864 book The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States on Facebook, the historical know-it-alls come out of the woodwork. They spew the typical cliches. • The United States was founded as a secular nation. • Our nation’s founders were deists, and they used deistic language instead of biblical language. Long before 1776 and [...]
Gary continues his talk about teaching history and how to make it relevant and interesting. Probably the most famous product placement story is how Reeses Pieces got an advertising boost from a loveable alien. “Stephen Spielberg asked the makers of M&Ms if they would grant him permission to use their product in the 1982 film E.T.: The Extraterrestrial, but was turned down. Spielberg then turne [...]
In a talk from a few years back, Gary discusses how to teach history so that it’s relevant, memorable, and applicable. Much of what we remember sticks in our mind because of repetition. That’s how we learned to speak, read, and write. Learning to ride a bicycle, drive a car, play a musical instrument, or learn a sport came by way of repetition. We struggled when we first got on a bicycle, bu [...]
Bart Ehrman, a New Testament scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has a bone to pick with Jesus and Bible prophecy. He has written on the topic of Jesus and prophecy in Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium (1999), Misquoting Jesus:The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (2005),and his most recent book Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says About the End (2 [...]
Gary discusses why the United States is NOT a democracy, despite how many politicians and reporters say it is. Most Americans are under the false impression that our system of constitutional government is a democracy. To be sure, there are certainly democratic elements present. The First Amendment to the Constitution states, “The people” have the right “to petition the Government [...]
Gary continues his talk about worldviews and Christian involvement. During the French Revolution, Christianity was deliberately being erased by political elitists, but this did not mean that religion itself would be banished. The vacuum was filled with a new god. The French “proclaimed the goddess of Reason in Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris and in other churches in France… In Paris, the godd [...]
To understand the relationship between Church and State we need to go to the source, and that source is not the United States Constitution. Modern-day social theory is based on an evolutionary model. This means that there is no way to account for morality, governmental jurisdictions, or separation of powers since these principles are found in the Bible. Some will argue that they can be accounted f [...]
It’s been said, “eternal vigilance is the price we pay for liberty.” While Leftists and Democrats (I repeat myself) target something called Christian Nationalism (which they get to define) and how such a movement is fascist and anti-Democratic, real fascism is being implemented right under our noses. The Foundation For Freedom Online reports that a recently uncovered “Disinformation Primer” author [...]
Gary continues his interview with artist Dan Riedel about his friendship with Dr. Cornelius Van Til. Without the Christian worldview, Van Til says: Our argument, then, is that those who come apparently ever so near the Christian position but stop short or maintaining the fundamental conceptions of an absolute Christ, an absolute Scripture, and regeneration, reduce experience to an absurdity. Here [...]
Gary interviews his long-time friend, Dan Riedel, who painted the artwork for the cover of the new book, The Objective Proof for Christianity. [T]he process of knowledge is a growth into the truth. For this reason we have spoken of the Christian theistic method as the method of implication into the truth of God. It is reasoning in a spiral fashion rather than in a linear fashion. Accordingly, we h [...]
Last Sunday’s sermon (3/10/2024) at our church was from Mark 15. Verse 21 caught my attention: “They pressed into service a passer-by coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene (the father of Alexander and Rufus), to bear His cross.” Biblical skeptics call for historical proof that Jesus existed and that the NT record is authentic. Many of these critics contend that the Gospels were written very lat [...]
Pastor John MacArthur denounced Christian nationalism insofar as it is defined as an attempt to usher in the Kingdom of God on Earth through political means. “There is no such thing as Christian nationalism,” MacArthur said during a question-and-answer period last month at Grace Community Church in Los Angeles. “The Kingdom of God is not of this world. Jesus said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. [...]
