21: Samuel’s Ghost, Shemitah Blood Moons, and Persecution

21: Samuel’s Ghost, Shemitah Blood Moons, and Persecution

Posted on July 6, 2020

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This week we start off talking about the false prophet John Hagee and the blood moons, the shemitah, and even necromancy regarding Samuel’s ghost. After that we set John loose to preach on persecution from Acts. It’s a great summary to the topic after discussing it a couple weeks ago.

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Westminster’s Confession: The Abandonment of Van Til’s Legacy

Posted on April 4, 2020

Written by Gary North

Download the PDF for free

WESTMINSTER’S NEGATIVE CONFESSION

In the final days of October, 1990, the long-predicted book by the faculty of Westminster Theological Seminary finally appeared: Theonomy: A Reformed Critique. In response come Westminster’s Confession. It is both a negative and a positive statement. Theonomists believe that “you can’t beat something with nothing.” It is not enough to demonstrate that someone is wrong; you must also show what is correct.

Cornelius Van Til made this principle the bedrock application of his apologetic method. It was not enough to demonstrate that his opponents’ systems of thought were internally inconsistent; he also showed why Christianity is the only logical alternative. But he left an incomplete legacy. He refused to offer an explicitly biblical alternative to the natural law theory that he had refuted. His system created a judicial vacuum.

Into that vacuum have come two rival factions: the political pluralists and the theonomists. The battle is now engaged.

Westminster Seminary’s problem for a generation – indeed, Calvinistic American Presbyterianism’s problem for two centuries – has been to justify a commitment to modern religious and political pluralism in terms of the Westminster Confession’s judicial standards. The faculty has been double-minded on this point:

Proclaiming their commitment to Van Til’s apologetic method, they have simultaneously denied the idea that the Bible is the bearer of biblical blueprints or judicial frameworks for society. In short, they have abandoned any ideal of a Christian society, i.e., Christendom itself.

This is Westminster’s social and cultural confession – a Theologically negative confession, proclaiming in the name of the original Westminster Assembly what society ought not to be, but never daring to suggest what it should be. In contrast, Westminster’s Confession offers a positive confession. It offers a biblical alternative. It restores the vision of Christendom.

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Easy Chair with R.J. Rushdoony

Posted on October 1, 2019

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The Easy Chair with R.J. Rushdoony is an audio series of colloquies, casual conversations, and roundtables presented by Chalcedon Foundation. Various topics are discussed solo by Rousas John Rushdoony and with guests, covering all areas of life and culture. Looking at life from a theonomic, Christian Reconstructionist perspective, we properly apply God’s word to our lives. These episodes were originally recorded in the 1980’s-1990’s.