Faith for All of Life July/August 2013 Editorials 2 from the President
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Faith for All of Life July/August 2013 Publisher & Chalcedon President Editorials Rev. Mark R. Rushdoony 2 From the President Chalcedon Vice-President “Rationalism: The Sinner’s Big Head” Martin Selbrede Features Editor Martin Selbrede 5 Does Theonomy Have a Fatal Flaw? Managing Editor Martin G. Selbrede Susan Burns 12 The Call from Sinai Contributing Editor Miles R. Jones, Ph.D. Lee Duigon 18 How the Last Became First Chalcedon Founder Bojidar Marinov Rev. R. J. Rushdoony Columns (1916-2001) was the founder of Chalcedon 21 Loyal Opposition and a leading theologian, church/ Andrea Schwartz state expert, and author of numerous works on the applica- 25 Old-Line Americans tion of Biblical Law to society. R. J. Rushdoony Products Receiving Faith for All of Life: This magazine will be sent to those who request it. At least once a year we ask 27 Catalog Insert that you return a response card if you wish to remain on the mailing list. Subscriptions are $20 per year ($35 for Canada; $45 for International). Checks should be made out to Chalcedon and mailed to P.O. Box 158, Vallecito, CA 95251 USA. Chalcedon may want to contact its readers quickly by means of e-mail. Faith for All of Life, published bi-monthly by Chalcedon, a tax-exempt Christian foundation, is sent to all who If you have an e-mail address, please request it. All editorial correspondence should be sent to the managing editor, P.O. Box 569, Cedar Bluff, VA send an e-mail message including 24609-0569. Laser-print hard copy and electronic disk submissions firmly encouraged. All submissions subject to editorial revision. Email: [email protected]. The editors are not responsible for the return of unsolicited manu- your full postal address to our office: scripts which become the property of Chalcedon unless other arrangements are made. Opinions expressed in this [email protected]. magazine do not necessarily reflect the views of Chalcedon. It provides a forum for views in accord with a relevant, active, historic Christianity, though those views may on occasion differ somewhat from Chalcedon’s and from each For circulation and data other. Chalcedon depends on the contributions of its readers, and all gifts to Chalcedon are tax-deductible. ©2013 Chalcedon. All rights reserved. Permission to reprint granted on written request only. Editorial Board: Rev. Mark management contact Rebecca R. Rushdoony, President/Editor-in-Chief; Martin Selbrede, Editor; Susan Burns, Managing Editor and Executive Rouse at (209) 736-4365 ext. 10 Assistant. Chalcedon, P.O. Box 158, Vallecito, CA 95251, Telephone Circulation (9:00a.m. - 5:00p.m., Pacific): (209) or [email protected] 736-4365 or Fax (209) 736-0536; email: [email protected]; www.chalcedon.edu; Circulation: Rebecca Rouse. From the President Rationalism: The Sinner’s Big Head By Mark R. Rushdoony o whatever extent “Naturalism rejects man’s no creaturehood and no higher power Tmen reject God creaturehood and effectively to hold men accountable for sin. Freud they must attempt makes mankind the supreme thus described guilt as man’s latent to replace Him with being, the highest pinnacle of the memories of the semi-human acts of the something in their own evolutionary process. The roles struggle for survival. experience. In rejecting The doctrine of the sovereignty are then reversed, because God God men suppose that He is, in fact, of God is essential to more than just is then at best an unnecessary easily removed by man’s intellectual man’s salvation; it governs all of life and dismissal. Whenever man dismisses God concept created by man. He is, action. The premise that a Sovereign from his thinking, however, a vacuum is moreover, rudely dismissed as God not only decrees and determines left which must be filled. an illegitimate supernatural but reveals Himself infallibly is central As men seek to fill that emptiness, intrusion into naturalism’s to Christian thought: it establishes a they find it necessary to “play God.” narrowly-defined reality.” reliable authority, a source for truth on To reject God inevitably leads to the which man can depend. A limited or elevation of another in His place. In subordinate deity is an oxymoron. modern thought the replacement for never presume the prerogatives of his Ancient man had no such certainty, God is manifested as the authority Creator. Even in Eden, sinlessness was and did not want it. The first heretical conferred on man and the resulting still in the context of creaturehood. Man movement to challenge Christianity folly of humanism. The humanist, in was under the authority of God and his after the apostles was Gnosticism, a fact, can best be described as one who life and its terms were at His discretion. mingling of many religious traditions “plays God,” or as Satan said in Eden, A second limitation on man is the which acknowledged a supreme presumes to “be as gods” (Gen. 3:5). fall. Man’s very creaturehood has been being as a very remote first cause but corrupted by his own actions. Accepting specifically defined him as unknown The Question of Authority the reality of sin is prerequisite to true and unknowable even to himself. If God is real, then obviously the conversion, which involves repentance All knowledge of higher things, the man in rebellion against accountability of sin and faith. The Christian must Gnostics said, was indirect, known to Him has a problem—he’s fighting not only accept these limitations, he via many levels of truths from the a losing battle against reality; he’s must understand himself as well as his supreme being. These emanations were trying to “kick against the pricks” just relationship to God in terms of both known only to the select few. Faith in like Saul (Acts 26:14). The consistent creaturehood and the fall. the Gnostic sense was faith in these humanist has an impossible void to fill. Non-Christian thought rejects both. men who were attuned to such secret Man without God seeks to know and Naturalism rejects man’s creaturehood knowledge. The theological battles understand in terms of himself what is, and effectively makes mankind the of the early centuries of the church in fact, beyond him. supreme being, the highest pinnacle were largely battles against such ideas Biblical faith is in God, not man. of the evolutionary process. The roles infiltrating the church as higher Biblical man sees himself in terms of are then reversed, because God is then understandings of the faith. God and His revelation. There are two at best an unnecessary concept created great limitations on men according to by man. He is, moreover, rudely Rationalism Scripture. First, creaturehood defines dismissed as an illegitimate supernatural Rationalism is the reliance on reason man’s position and responsibility in intrusion into naturalism’s narrowly- as man’s primary means to knowledge relation to the Creator. A creature can defined reality. Without God there is and truth. Rationalism overtly or 2 Faith for All of Life | July/August 2013 www.chalcedon.edu Faith for All of Life effectively ignores both creaturehood The Limits of Reason Sadly, rationalism has had quite and the fall and therefore puts an Reason is limited by man and his an influence in the church. For some, impossible burden on man’s mind. experience. Aside from his creaturehood reason has been equated with the image Reason, if defined as thought or logic, and sin, man is limited by his finitude. of God in man, so that man becomes is a valid tool, but rationalism gives it a Man cannot experience all the closer to his Creator by his intellectual position of preeminence. potentialities of his world and there are pursuits. This, of course, goes hand in Rationalism emerged in the certain realms he cannot experience at hand with an effective denial of the full Enlightenment as a self-conscious all. Rationalism ascribes to man’s reason effects of the fall, for the mind of man move away from dependence on faith unlimited responsibility with limited then becomes not a manifestation of and revelation. This was a reaction ability. If reality is at all what Scripture sinfulness but a glimpse of his divine to the theistic thought of medieval says it to be, however, reason is a valid potential. Christendom and, more immediately, but limited tool. Rationalism has not been limited to that of the Protestant Reformation. Rationalism limits understanding to the liberal church, though. Many The Enlightenment was a revolution by effectively denying there is a conservative thinkers so believe in the in Western thought and is still largely mind greater than man’s. This is modern reliance on reason, they begin the framework of the modern world. why Intelligent Design is rejected their theological discussions with the The shift was toward a new authority, by the rationalist. One would think supposition that all doctrines must be that of man’s reason over revelation. design implied a designer, but such understandable to man because reason Higher criticism of Scripture is thus an implication is too theistic for the is a kind of common bond between a rationalistic religious trend that sees modern naturalist. Intelligent Design is the mind of God and that of man. The man as the highest authority and God’s rejected out of hand because it implies result is a convoluted and ostensibly Word as subject to man’s final word. a higher designer, effectively a deity. erudite language by which they discuss The same could be said of religious Intelligent Design is not creationism what they do not and cannot truly modernism in general. and will not end in the God of understand.