Are We Conquering or Surrendering?

If Christ is truly King of kings and Lord of lords, why does so much of the modern church operate as though His reign is deferred, limited, or irrelevant to the world beyond personal piety? When Chalcedon's founder R.J. Rushdoony wrote that "the church could not hope in time to rule the world if it could not rule itself," critics objected not to the church's failure at self-governance but to the very idea that Christians have any business exercising dominion in the world at all. That reaction reveals just how deeply the Great Christian Surrender has taken root. In this episode, Andrea Schwartz and Chalcedon vice president Martin Selbrede unpack his essay "The Great Christian Surrender" from the July 2026 issue of *Arise and Build*. Selbrede argues that the church has embraced defeat through multiple avenues — deferring Christ's kingship to a future return, restricting His lordship to the spiritual realm, or attempting to advance the kingdom through humanistic power grabs. Each of these errors discounts the omnipotent work of the Holy Spirit and replaces the biblical model of faithful obedience with either passive resignation or worldly power politics. Drawing on Zechariah's vision of smiths and artisans who quietly confound the enemies of God, the example of John Cotton in New England, and the Puritan unleashing of the priesthood of all believers, Selbrede makes the case that kingdom advancement comes not by might or political power but by the Spirit working through faithful families and individuals who refuse to limit the Holy One of Israel. The conversation presses into what it means to be "more than conquerors" — not merely defeating opponents but transforming former enemies into willing citizens of Christ's kingdom through conversion. This is a call to reject the council of despair preached from too many pulpits and to take up the proper weapons of reconstruction: faithfulness to God's Word, generational investment, and confidence in the Spirit's world-transforming power. Listen and be challenged to ask whether you are conquering or surrendering.