An Informed Faith: The Position Papers of R.J. Rushdoony

Titanism is the glorification of human effort that seeks to do the impossible, often disguising pride as virtue. Rooted in Greek mythology and revived by Romanticism, it celebrates defying limits, fate, and even God, treating failure itself as proof of greatness. Within the church, Titanism appears when believers ignore God’s clear commands about limits, stewardship of time, and fruitfulness. Scripture teaches that while God is omnipotent, man is not; Christians are forbidden to waste time on futile efforts, to defy God’s order, or to attempt to “play God” in prayer, ministry, or reform. Faithfulness, not heroics, is required. At heart, Titanism is hubris—the desire to seize God’s role and glory. Biblical faith rejects titanic ambition in favor of humble obedience, wise discernment, and service under Christ’s sovereign rule.

The debate over monergism vs. synergism concerns who is decisive in salvation. Monergism teaches that salvation is entirely the work of God’s sovereign grace from beginning to end; man contributes nothing but receives grace. Synergism teaches that God and man cooperate, making man’s decision the decisive factor in salvation. In practice, synergism shifts sovereignty from God to man. If man’s will is decisive, salvation can be gained or lost by human choice, and revival techniques, psychology, and emotional appeal replace God’s Word and Spirit. Monergism, by contrast, upholds God’s sovereignty and leads to confidence in the perseverance of the saints. Though synergism claims cooperation, it ultimately enthrones human will, echoing the temptation of Genesis 3:5. Scripture allows no shared sovereignty: either God saves, or man makes himself god.

Catharsis is the belief that health—personal or social—comes through the uninhibited expression of inner impulses. Originating in Greek tragedy, it was later moralized by Christians but eventually reverted to its pagan meaning: purging through violence, sexuality, or emotional release rather than moral restoration. In modern times, catharsis has justified revolutionary violence, sexual permissiveness, artistic degeneration, and Freudian psychology, all of which treat repression—not sin—as the problem. Evil is not restrained or redeemed but “vented,” whether through riots, psychodrama, occult rituals, or radical self-expression. The result has been cultural breakdown, mass violence, and moral chaos. Biblical faith rejects catharsis. Healing comes not through self-expression but through repentance, discipline, and God’s regenerating grace. True renewal is God-centered, not man-centered: “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev. 21:5). Catharsis produces death; Christ produces life.

Claims that Christianity borrowed from ancient mystery religions rest on superficial similarities and miss the real contrast. The mysteries offered secret rites, mystical experiences, spiritual escape, and vague hopes of immortality, with little concern for history, morality, or transforming society. Christianity, by contrast, proclaimed a public, historical faith grounded in God’s revealed Word, the bodily resurrection, and Christ’s lordship over all of life. Ironically, modern churches often resemble the mystery cults more than the early church—reducing faith to private spirituality, emotional experience, and soul-saving alone, while rejecting God’s law, works of mercy, and cultural responsibility. Biblical faith unites belief and action: faith without works is dead, and Christ’s Kingdom calls believers not to retreat from the world, but to serve and reform it under His rule.

Kenoticism turns Christianity into a religion of surrender, teaching that holiness means self-abasement, passivity, and acceptance of defeat. Borrowed largely from Eastern religions and filtered into the West through Pietism, Quietism, and modernism, it redefines virtue as submission to evil rather than obedience to God. By emptying Christ of power, kenoticism also empties the church of courage, responsibility, and victory. Scripture, however, proclaims Christ as Lord—not defeated victim—and calls His people to faith, obedience, and overcoming. Biblical faith is not resignation, but faithful action under the reign of Christ the King.

Kenosis falsely teaches that Christ emptied Himself of divine power and that true Christianity means self-abasement, passivity, and surrender to evil. Over time, it turned humility into victimhood, portraying holiness as nonresistance, poverty, and submission rather than faithful obedience and righteous action. This doctrine has produced a suicidal faith—undermining justice, excusing sin, weakening nations, and replacing Christ’s lordship with moral retreat. Biblical Christianity calls believers not to glorify defeat, but to live boldly under Christ the King, choosing life, truth, and faithful dominion rather than sanctified surrender.

Theosis teaches that salvation is deification—that man becomes god. Rooted in Greek and Neoplatonic thought rather than Scripture, it blurs the Creator–creature distinction and drifts toward pantheism. Salvation is redefined as mystical union instead of deliverance from sin by God’s sovereign grace. By exalting man and diminishing Christ’s lordship, theosis replaces the biblical gospel with spiritual elitism, mystery, and asceticism. It is not deeper Christianity, but another religion altogether.

The Great Fear marks the collapse of societies when faith dies. As seen in the French Revolution and repeated throughout history, fear begins in the human conscience before it erupts socially. When people abandon God, meaning dissolves, reason falters, and irrational terror takes hold. Men believe anything because they believe nothing, and chaos follows. The only true antidote is the Great Faith—not passive belief or escapism, but living, obedient faith grounded in God’s Word. Biblical faith overcomes fear by affirming God’s sovereign rule over all of life. It applies God’s law, exercises godly dominion, and acts with confidence that Christ reigns now. Where fear paralyzes, faith conquers.

Quietism turned Christianity into passive inward spirituality, separating heart from mind and prayer from action. It treated engagement with doctrine, law, and society as unspiritual, redefining holiness as withdrawal from the world. By minimizing moral struggle, Biblical law, and Christ’s lordship over history, Quietism replaced obedience with spiritual quietude. The result was an irrelevant faith that surrendered culture and responsibility, contrary to Biblical Christianity’s call to active, faithful service under Christ the King.

Cartesianism makes the human mind the source of truth and reality (“I think, therefore I am”), replacing God’s revealed world with subjective ideas and symbols. In theology, this turns Biblical history into “myth” or “meaning” while denying real events like the incarnation or resurrection. At root, it repeats Genesis 3:5—man deciding reality for himself. Scripture teaches that man’s problem is sin, not ignorance, and that truth comes from the triune God, not autonomous human thought.

Pietism rejected doctrine as “dead” and reduced Christianity to emotion and private experience. Being “born again” was emphasized without Biblical definition, while theology, catechism, and the full counsel of God were sidelined. Faith became feeling rather than truth grounded in God’s Word. The result was a weakened church and a strengthened state. As Christianity turned inward and man-centered, enthusiasm shifted from Christ’s Kingdom to nationalism and statism. Emotionalism replaced obedience, and personal experience displaced God’s authority. Biblical Christianity is not anti-feeling, but it is God-centered, doctrinal, and comprehensive—calling believers to think rightly, live faithfully, and bring all of life under Christ’s lordship.

Pietism began as a reaction against cold formalism, but it quickly became a distortion of the Christian faith. By dismissing doctrine, theology, and systematic teaching as “dead knowledge,” Pietism reduced Christianity to emotional experience and private devotion. Being “born again” was emphasized, yet stripped of clear Biblical meaning, while catechism, preaching the whole counsel of God, and intellectual engagement with Scripture were sidelined. Faith became intuition and feeling rather than truth grounded in God’s revealed Word. The long-term consequences were severe. Pietism weakened the church and strengthened the state, turning Christianity into a private, inward religion while nationalism and statism filled the vacuum. As doctrine faded, enthusiasm was easily redirected from Christ’s Kingdom to earthly powers. Churches became people-centered rather than God-centered, focused on pleasing congregations instead of proclaiming God’s law-word and lordship over all of life. Emotionalism replaced obedience, and “heart religion” was set against “head religion,” as if loving God with the mind were a sin. Ultimately, Pietism proved implicitly antinomian and man-centered. It shifted authority from the triune God to personal experience, fostered censoriousness, and encouraged retreat from culture, law, and responsibility. Biblical Christianity, by contrast, is God-centered, doctrinal, and comprehensive—calling believers not merely to feel deeply, but to think rightly, live faithfully, and bring every area of life into obedience to Christ the King.

Catharism was a medieval revival of Manichaean dualism that masqueraded as true Christianity while denying its foundations. By asserting two ultimate powers—a good spiritual god and an evil material god—the Cathars rejected creation, the incarnation, the resurrection of the body, and the Trinity. Christ, for them, was only an appearance, not God made flesh. Salvation was escape from matter, not redemption of the world. This led inevitably to hostility toward Biblical law, marriage, property, and history itself. The Old Testament was treated as the work of an evil creator, and God’s law as an obstacle to salvation. The social consequences were destructive. Cathar spirituality bred antinomianism, sexual perversity, contempt for family and property, pacifism mixed with violence, and a retreat from responsibility. Their “holiness” rested on human renunciation rather than God’s grace, producing elitism, despair, and even suicide. Because they denied law, they could not build a godly order; because they despised creation, they abandoned dominion. Their legacy—false spirituality, hostility to law, retreat from history, and contempt for the material world—has repeatedly resurfaced in the church. Biblical Christianity affirms the goodness of creation, the reality of the incarnation, the authority of God’s law, and Christ’s kingship over history. Salvation is not flight from the world but its restoration under Christ. The Cathars represent the perennial temptation to exchange faith and joy for dualism and despair—and to call that exchange “spirituality.”

Pelagianism places man at the center of salvation, treating God’s grace as an aid rather than the decisive cause. By denying original sin and affirming human ability, it recasts conversion as a human choice God merely approves. In doing so, it rejects eternal security, minimizes Christ’s atoning work, and turns salvation into self-improvement rather than resurrection from spiritual death. The consequences are far-reaching. Pelagianism fuels humanism in both church and state, transferring trust from God to man, education, science, and government. It produces a culture that excuses sin, idolizes victimhood, and expands state power while denying divine authority. Scripture, history, and modern collapse all testify to the same truth: man cannot save himself. Only God’s sovereign grace in Christ redeems, restores, and gives lasting hope.

Pelagianism teaches that man is not fallen in his whole being and can choose God by the power of his own will. Sin is minimized, original guilt denied, and salvation becomes a cooperative project between human decision and divine help. Grace, rather than being sovereign and necessary, is treated as optional or proportionate to human effort. The result is a Christianity centered on enthusiasm, decisionism, and revival emotion rather than the regenerating power of God. By shifting salvation from God’s action to man’s choice, Pelagianism drains the church of assurance, humility, and true power. Where grace is no longer sovereign, faith becomes shallow, the gospel becomes moralism, and the church becomes increasingly irrelevant.

Arianism denied that Jesus Christ is very God of very God, reducing Him to a created being and turning God into an unknowable force. What looked “reasonable” and culturally acceptable in its day had devastating long-term effects: it destroyed certainty in God’s Word, emptied revelation of final authority, and replaced divine truth with human power. When Christ is no longer the full and final revelation of God, men inevitably look elsewhere for certainty—most often to the state. History shows the fruit. Where Arian thinking spread, rulers flourished and tyranny followed. Without an incarnate Lord and an infallible Word to judge kings and nations, the state becomes god walking on earth. Modern parallels abound: relativism, Darwinism, statism, and even occultism all grow where Christ’s deity and authority are denied. The lesson is stark and enduring—diminish Christ, and darker powers rush in to fill the vacuum.

Donatism arose from a sincere desire for a pure church, but it turned holiness into a test of legitimacy rather than a fruit of grace. By insisting that the validity of sacraments and the church itself depended on the personal purity of ministers, Donatism shifted confidence from Christ to men and institutions. This destroyed assurance, fostered separatism, and replaced faith in God’s sovereign grace with trust in human righteousness. Against this, Augustine rightly insisted that salvation and the efficacy of Word and sacrament rest in Christ alone, not in the moral state of the minister. The church is not a museum of the already holy but a school of grace for sinners being sanctified. Whenever zeal for purity eclipses charity, forgiveness, and patience, Donatism reappears—whether in churches or in politics—producing condemnation instead of renewal. The Kingdom of God advances, not by censorious separation, but by sovereign grace working through God’s Word.

Modalism: A Modern Return to an Ancient Error Modalism denies the Trinity by reducing Father, Son, and Spirit to temporary “modes” of a single, unknowable force. It presents God as evolving, changeable, and ultimately beyond clear revelation—making Scripture, theology, and doctrine negotiable rather than authoritative. When God is treated as a shifting life force instead of the unchanging Triune Creator, truth collapses into relativism. Modalism may sound spiritual and humble, but it replaces the biblical God with another religion altogether—one that leaves the church vulnerable to new prophets, new revelations, and enduring confusion.

Monarchianism: The Subtle Denial of the Trinity Monarchianism uses orthodox language while quietly emptying it of Trinitarian meaning. God is spoken of as the Father alone, while the Son and the Spirit are reduced to mere modes or manifestations. Jesus becomes a merely “historical” man ethically united to God, not God incarnate—someone to imitate, but not a Savior who redeems. This error drains Christianity of its power. Without the true incarnation and the triune God acting in history, faith collapses into moralism, rhetoric, and personality-driven religion. Where the Trinity is denied or neglected, pride replaces truth, and preaching shifts from exposition to performance.

The Manichaean Heresy Today: From Conversion to Destruction Manichaeanism replaces the Bible’s moral conflict (sin vs. obedience) with a false conflict of being—spirit vs. matter, light vs. darkness. When evil is treated as something inherent in people, classes, races, or institutions, the solution is no longer repentance and conversion, but suppression, exclusion, or death. This logic has fueled revolution, Marxism, racism, and modern statism. Christianity offers a radically different answer: creation is good, sin is moral, and the remedy is regeneration in Christ. Where Manichaean thinking produces endless conflict, Scripture calls the church back to faithfulness, conversion, and practical obedience under the one true God.

The Carpocratians: Remaking Jesus to Fit the Age The Carpocratians reshaped Jesus to suit their culture—turning Him into a religious genius, rejecting the Old Testament, denying His uniqueness, and redefining justice as radical equality. By accommodating Christ to contemporary philosophy, they created a fictitious “modern” Jesus whose relevance vanished with the culture that produced Him. This impulse is still with us. Whenever Christ is revised to fit the spirit of the age, faith is emptied of power. The answer then—and now—is unwavering allegiance to the whole Word of God and the true Christ it reveals.

The Carpocratian Heresy: “Spiritual” License to Sin Carpocratianism dressed itself up as Christianity while rejecting God’s law, Scripture’s authority, and Christ’s atonement. Claiming a “higher spirituality,” it taught that faith and love freed people from obedience, turning grace into permission for immorality and elitism. This heresy lives on wherever believers pick and choose God’s Word, spiritualize away His commandments, and call lawlessness “freedom.” True faith does not rise above God’s law—it submits to it under Christ the King.

Marcionism: The Gospel Cut in Half Marcionism divides Scripture, rejects God’s law, and pits the Old Testament against the New—turning grace into escapism and faith into retreat from the real world. By denying the unity of God’s revelation, it replaces Christ the King with a “spiritual” Christ who rules nothing. Biblical faith is not separation from creation but redemption of it. Grace restores us to obedience, victory, and dominion under the one Lord of all Scripture.

The Montanist Outlook: Zeal Without Wisdom Montanism began with a desire for spiritual purity and urgency but drifted into error by exalting personal revelation, instant holiness, and end-times obsession over Scripture, discipline, and growth. By dividing believers into “spiritual” and “carnal,” it undermined authority, fostered legalism, and replaced patient sanctification with demands for perfection now. True Christianity calls for tested faith, humility, and long obedience in history. When zeal outruns wisdom, the result is not renewal—but irrelevance to Christ’s kingdom work in the world.

R.J. Rushdoony recounts his visit to Australia and New Zealand, praising the active Reconstruction movement under Howard Carter and urging prayer and support. He reviews books showing the importance of biblical knowledge, historical awareness, and societal responsibility: Whately’s Historic Doubts critiques rationalistic methods, Gura’s A Glimpse of Zion’s Glory highlights the Puritans’ focus on God’s kingdom, Smalley emphasizes the need for resources in biblical scholarship, and Shevchenko exposes Soviet leaders’ dangerous isolation. He also notes the decline of U.S. denominations, Greeley’s reminder that most Americans remain Christian, and Lukacs’ warning about modern education degrading historical understanding. Rushdoony stresses the central role of strong Christian families, homeschooling, and schools in shaping the future, countering societal decay and preparing for Christ’s kingdom.

Marcionism: The Ancient Error Still with Us Marcionism separates law from grace, the Old Testament from the New, and faith from real life. By rejecting God’s law, creation, and covenant unity, it turns Christianity into escapism—“spiritual” but powerless. This error still weakens the church today whenever Scripture is divided and God’s law is dismissed. Biblical faith is not retreat from the world but Christ’s kingship over it. Grace restores us to obedience, dominion, and victory under the one, unified Word of God.

Docetism and the Mandate for Dominion Docetism denies Christ’s true incarnation and, in doing so, empties Christianity of its power in history. By treating salvation as escape from the material world rather than deliverance from sin, it undermines God’s law, Christ’s kingship, and the biblical call to exercise dominion. The incarnate, crucified, and risen Christ redeems flesh and history, restoring His people to righteous rule under God. Dominion is not unspiritual—it is the fruit of the true gospel lived out in obedience.

In this episode, R.J. Rushdoony and Otto Scott interview Joseph McAuliffe about his Christian faith and business ministry. McAuliffe recounts his conversion in 1971 at Bowling Green State University, his early dispensational training, and eventual realization—through Rushdoony’s Institutes of Biblical Law—that God’s kingdom is relevant to all areas of life, including business. He emphasizes that business is a divine calling, a ministry under God, and should be treated as holy work. McAuliffe explains the founding of Businessgram, a publication addressing finance, economics, and business from a biblical perspective. He highlights the lack of ethical and entrepreneurial training in traditional business schools, and the need for Christian businessmen to recognize their sphere as a legitimate ministry, separate from the church but equally under God’s authority. He notes that many Christians mistakenly undervalue business, treating it as inferior or merely a platform for evangelism, instead of embracing its unique calling. He shares practical outcomes of this approach, citing 28 entrepreneurial businesses started by church members in Bowling Green, Ohio, which eliminated local unemployment and demonstrated that Christians can integrate biblical principles into successful enterprises. McAuliffe warns against presumptuousness and stresses careful planning, proper capitalization, and wise counsel. Overall, he sees Christian business as part of a broader cultural and eschatological restoration, fulfilling God’s command to steward and disciple nations through practical engagement in the marketplace.

Docetism: The Crippling Heresy Docetism denies the full humanity of Christ, treating His incarnation as a mere appearance rather than real flesh and blood. Scripture condemns this error plainly: “Jesus Christ is come in the flesh” (2 John 7). By spiritualizing Christ, Docetism also devalues God’s law, history, and the physical world, leading to retreatism and powerlessness in the church. A Christ who is not truly incarnate cannot truly redeem. The gospel is not escape from the world, but Christ’s victory in the world—body and soul—calling His church to faithful obedience and dominion under Him.

Modern Gnosticism Modern Gnosticism repeats an ancient error: it elevates elite “knowledge,” symbolism, and changing ideas above the plain Word of God. It rejects the literal meaning of Scripture, especially Genesis, downplays God’s law, and scorns ordinary believers as naïve, while adapting Christianity to current philosophy, science, and cultural fashion. Whether in theology, art, politics, or even conservatism, modern Gnosticism replaces God’s unchanging truth with evolving meanings set by the spirit of the age. Yet Scripture remains clear: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot extinguish it” (John 1:5).

In this wide-ranging episode (Sept. 16, 1986), R.J. Rushdoony opens with Tertullian’s striking line—“Your Emperor is more our Emperor than he is yours”—to argue that Christians alone can truly interpret civil power because they know rulers come by God’s providence, whether as judgment or blessing, and this certainty is part of why the early Church outlasted Rome. From there he surveys the spiritual emptiness that made paganism hopeless (“grant me what I deserve”) and critiques how first-century Judaism could be reduced to external markers (“perhaps you will find mercy”), contrasting both with Christianity’s vitality in reaching “the man in the Roman street.” He then pivots through a series of modern parallels and warnings: stories from early American life on duty, marriage, and work ethic; a note on how unbelief can be treated as the great sin while immorality is minimized; a biting example of educational decline producing arrogant illiteracy; and economic reflections on regulatory “welfare for the well-to-do” that strangles nations over time. He closes by exposing the modern idolatries of **peace-at-any-price** and **need-as-morality** (“I need, therefore I am”), spotlighting Sweden as a cautionary model of state intrusion, and ending with a sobering picture of public-school historical ignorance—calling listeners to recover faith, virtue, and real dominion before cultural decay becomes irreversible. #EasyChair #Rushdoony #Chalcedon #Tertullian #ChurchAndState #Providence #EarlyChurch #Rome #ChristianWorldview #EducationCrisis #Statism #Bureaucracy #NeedCulture #PeaceAtAnyPrice #CulturalDecay

Gnosticism Gnosticism teaches that evil lies in the material world and that salvation comes through secret knowledge, not through Christ’s finished work. It rejects the Old Testament, God’s law, and moral responsibility, replacing grace with human insight and autonomy. Though ancient, Gnosticism lives on today—in modern art, philosophy, theology, and ethics—where immediacy replaces mediation, feelings replace truth, and man replaces God. Against this, Scripture declares a God who speaks, commands, judges, and saves—and who is nearer to us than we are to ourselves.

Rushdoony highlights books connecting history, faith, and society. Ussher’s Annals of the World ties God’s blessings and judgments to Israel’s obedience. Early Christians, per Davies, practiced charity seriously, contrasting Pharisaic legalism. Verzone and Ferrar show the church’s spiritual and cultural significance. Modern works reveal God’s design in the immune system (In Self-Defence), social impacts on disease (The Disease Detectives), and moral challenges in law and society (Garris, Phillips, Russell, Mills, Krasnov). Arnold’s biography illustrates American perseverance and moral education. The session closes with a humorous note on a “Catholic computer.”

Heresy today thrives under the banner of “personal choice.” In the name of peace, churches often silence defenders of orthodoxy while tolerating false teaching. Truth is sacrificed to harmony, and those who insist on Scripture are labeled divisive. Modern culture denies objective truth altogether, treating belief as personal preference rather than submission to God’s revealed Word. This spirit makes heresy normal and orthodoxy suspect. Yet the task remains: to contend for the faith once delivered, even when the age prefers choice over truth.

All true knowledge begins with God. When man makes himself the final judge of truth—treating nature, reason, or experience as ultimate—knowledge collapses into meaninglessness. Apart from God, facts become brute and irrational, and reason has no foundation. Scripture is clear: man cannot escape dependence on his Creator. Though he rebels morally, he remains under God’s law and government. Without God there is no knowledge—only confusion; with God, meaning and truth are possible.

Modern man tries to redefine reality to escape God. By making reality equal to human reason, experience, or this physical world alone, God is pushed aside as unnecessary—or silenced altogether. This is autonomy at work: man making himself the measure of all things. Scripture exposes the flaw. When reality begins with man, God is eventually eliminated. When reality begins with God, truth, meaning, and moral accountability remain intact. Denying God doesn’t change reality—it only distorts how we see it.

Autonomy is man’s ancient sin—the desire to be his own god, defining good and evil by personal standards. In modern life this shows up as art for art’s sake, science for science’s sake, and reason judging all things, all detached from God, law, and accountability. Scripture exposes autonomy as rebellion. God’s law reveals man’s sin, not to destroy him, but to point him to grace. The real choice is clear: autonomy or theonomy—self-law or God’s law. Autonomy leads to anarchy; only submission to God’s authority leads to truth, order, and life.

Authority is never neutral—it always flows from ownership. Scripture is clear: because God is the Creator and Owner of all things, He alone is the ultimate source of authority and law. When societies detach authority from God, they inevitably transfer ownership and power to the state, resulting in coercion, irresponsibility, and oppression rather than justice. Biblical authority is delegated, not absolute. Man is a steward under God, accountable for how he uses his life, property, and relationships. As God’s law is rejected, human law multiplies, becoming increasingly intrusive and forceful. History shows that when God’s ownership is denied, moral order collapses, law becomes lawless, and freedom disappears. True authority is restored only when Christ’s kingship is acknowledged. Without recognizing God’s absolute ownership, both reason and authority decay. Jesus Christ alone is “King of kings and Lord of lords” (1 Tim. 6:15), and only under His rule can authority be just, limited, and life-giving.

Why do revolutions fail—and what kind of authority can truly hold a society together? In this episode, R.J. Rushdoony traces the deep conflict between elitism, equalitarianism, and Biblical authority. From aristocrats to academics, man-made power structures always collapse under sin. Only Christ’s atonement can restore true authority—rooted not in control, but in covenant service. Tune in to discover why regeneration, not revolution, is the only path to real community.

What happens when no one believes in legitimate authority anymore? In this episode, R.J. Rushdoony traces how the collapse of faith in God as sovereign has led to lawlessness, revolution, and social decay. From the guillotine of 1793 to today’s culture of defiance, Rushdoony shows that without God’s law, power becomes terror—and order dies. Tune in to hear why true authority begins with obedience to the only wise God.

Satan’s greatest lie isn’t rebellion—it’s self-righteousness. In this episode, R.J. Rushdoony reveals how the devil's message, “Ye shall be as gods,” fuels modern moral chaos. When every man becomes his own lawgiver, truth dies and culture crumbles. Tune in to hear why Satan’s gospel is alive in today’s humanism—and why only God’s law can save us.

Heresy originally meant choice—placing personal opinion above God’s revealed truth. Throughout history, heresies have taken many forms, but they share a common root: redefining God, Christ, or salvation to fit human philosophy rather than Scripture. From ancient Gnosticism and Arianism to modern process theology, heresy consistently undermines revelation, incarnation, and God’s authority. When man reshapes theology, truth erodes. Orthodoxy is not rigidity—it is faithfulness to the God who has spoken.

In this episode, we examine R.J. Rushdoony’s bold challenge to the rising tyranny of statist authority. Prompted by President Carter’s 1980 call for military draft registration—including potentially for women—Rushdoony reminds Christians that true authority belongs to God alone. Drawing from Scripture and America’s founding principles, he defends the family as God’s first government, condemns statist interventionism, and exposes how modern man, by rejecting responsibility, invites both judgment and slavery. When the state commands what God forbids, or forbids what God commands, the Christian response must be clear: “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). Tune in to hear how Rushdoony equips the church to resist compromise and reclaim Biblical dominion—starting with the question of who truly has the right to command.

Modern religion often claims belief in God while rejecting His law. When pastors say Jesus had “no rules,” they replace God’s authority with human preference. A god without law makes no claim on our lives—and therefore changes nothing. This antinomian faith breeds lawlessness. When obedience is grounded in feelings instead of God’s commandments, man dethrones God and enthrones himself. God is not dethroned in reality—only in man’s imagination. He still reigns, and the call remains: repent and submit to His rule.

Our faith should be an informed one because the God who created all things speaks to every sphere of life, and all facts should be studied in light of the revelation of God in Scripture. This is the foundation of Christian dominion. For R. J. Rushdoony, true government was the self-government of the Christian life in terms of God's law, so he wrote his position papers to better equip Christians to apply their faith to all of life. His objective was not to empower the state, or the organized church, but rather to call every person and institution to God's Word, which often put him at odds with both church and state. (Position Papers from 1979-2000)

Our faith should be an informed one because the God who created all things speaks to every sphere of life, and all facts should be studied in light of the revelation of God in Scripture. This is the foundation of Christian dominion. For R. J. Rushdoony, true government was the self-government of the Christian life in terms of God's law, so he wrote his position papers to better equip Christians to apply their faith to all of life. His objective was not to empower the state, or the organized church, but rather to call every person and institution to God's Word, which often put him at odds with both church and state. (Position Papers from 1979-2000)

Our faith should be an informed one because the God who created all things speaks to every sphere of life, and all facts should be studied in light of the revelation of God in Scripture. This is the foundation of Christian dominion. For R. J. Rushdoony, true government was the self-government of the Christian life in terms of God's law, so he wrote his position papers to better equip Christians to apply their faith to all of life. His objective was not to empower the state, or the organized church, but rather to call every person and institution to God's Word, which often put him at odds with both church and state. (Position Papers from 1979-2000)

Our faith should be an informed one because the God who created all things speaks to every sphere of life, and all facts should be studied in light of the revelation of God in Scripture. This is the foundation of Christian dominion. For R. J. Rushdoony, true government was the self-government of the Christian life in terms of God's law, so he wrote his position papers to better equip Christians to apply their faith to all of life. His objective was not to empower the state, or the organized church, but rather to call every person and institution to God's Word, which often put him at odds with both church and state. (Position Papers from 1979-2000)

Our faith should be an informed one because the God who created all things speaks to every sphere of life, and all facts should be studied in light of the revelation of God in Scripture. This is the foundation of Christian dominion. For R. J. Rushdoony, true government was the self-government of the Christian life in terms of God's law, so he wrote his position papers to better equip Christians to apply their faith to all of life. His objective was not to empower the state, or the organized church, but rather to call every person and institution to God's Word, which often put him at odds with both church and state. (Position Papers from 1979-2000)

Our faith should be an informed one because the God who created all things speaks to every sphere of life, and all facts should be studied in light of the revelation of God in Scripture. This is the foundation of Christian dominion. For R. J. Rushdoony, true government was the self-government of the Christian life in terms of God's law, so he wrote his position papers to better equip Christians to apply their faith to all of life. His objective was not to empower the state, or the organized church, but rather to call every person and institution to God's Word, which often put him at odds with both church and state. (Position Papers from 1979-2000)