Miscellaneous

A Personal Message from R.J. Rushdoony

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject:

Lesson:

Genre: Speech

Track:

Dictation Name: RR301A1 – A Personal Message from R.J. Rushdoony

Year: October 22, 1999

This is R. J. Rushdoony speaking to you on October 22, 1999 at the close of the 20th century, and possibly not too far from the close of my life, for I am now eighty-three and up and down in my health. I’m speaking in order to thank all of you for your faithful support. Over the years we have survived because people like yourself have felt that what we have to say at Chalcedon deserves to be heard. You are happy to have us say it, and you have made clear your desire to see it stated more fully by your constant and faithful support.

I do hope with all my heart that you will continue that support after I am gone. Let me say a few things about what we have been doing.

I grew up, as you know, in a foreign background. I did not speak much English when I started school. It led to amusing problems for the teachers. As I grew up in a foreign language church and attended meetings of other churches, English speaking, their youth groups, their special adult meetings and all, it was a matter of some bewilderment to me, and one that has not abated with the years. What has happened in the Western world is that the Christian message has become thinner and thinner, less and less comprehensive, less and less theological. It has become just a vague affirmation of a few things. I saw this in youth meetings, in adult meetings very clearly. They could be ready to say that I’m saved by the blood of Jesus, or to go into why it is important for us as Christian Americans to hold fast to the faith, but with each passing year, I saw the content of the faith weaken and diminish. What we have seen, very clearly, in this century is that the content of the faith has not only weakened, but in some quarters, it has disappeared. I’m happy to say that in some churches, small groups, have attempted to reestablish once again the fullness of the faith in their congregations, but they have not been altogether successful. There is a difference in our world today.

When I was a child, it was free radio and free television, and out in the country, movies were city affairs and far from us. So we lived a life that was, in some respects, restricted. In other ways, it was rich and full because we filled out time and our days with serious matters of the faith and of society. That is no longer commonplace. What became apparent, too, was that the average congregation, even though claiming orthodoxy, knew very little about what constitutes orthodoxy. Their entire attitude is one of a rather vague affirmation of the faith, and too little in the way of a development of it in any area of life or thought.

As a result, we today face a situation in which the Christian community, while numerically strong, grows weaker and weaker. This is why you are important. By the grace of God, we have been instrumental in leading many of you to know your Bible better. You’ve told me so in many instances, how you were ignorant of the Bible to the point of not knowing what its chief doctrines were, and now you have a solid knowledge of Reformed orthodoxy. I’m very grateful to you for your zeal for the faith and your gratefulness to Chalcedon. I hope when I am gone your support for Chalcedon will not diminish, but will instead increase. The men we have now on the staff are, I feel, the best we have ever had, more concerned with the doctrines, and less concerned with their own advancement, as has been the case at times with others.

There are many things we are planning to do to advance the work of Chalcedon in the service of the kingdom of God. I won’t go into them at this time, but rest assured, Chalcedon is not going to stand still after I am gone. It has plans of which I am a part, and the formation thereof, for developing the usefulness of Chalcedon and its importance in the application of the faith.

Now, when we look back over the 20th century, we see a dramatic change. Before about 1920, while there were churches that were seriously adrift, there was still a great deal of Bible reading and Bible study. A high percentage of churches were still, at the very least, evangelical. That has disappeared. It is difficult to find, in major cities, many churches that are orthodox in faith. Someone who visited every church in the Washington D.C. area commented to me on the absence of any real doctrine and the prevalence of a very thin social gospel, and generally an unwillingness to come to grips with the Bible. Given this fact, there’s not much future for the church in this country. One writer, a brilliant scholar, has predicted that early in the next century, by some time in the first quarter, the church will virtually disappear as any kind of social force, and the Christian faith will be at a minimum in the United States, and we shall fall apart in our theological waywardness.

I believe, of course, that he is right, and I believe also that we have an important role in countering this kind of development. This is why we are, of course, so much hated by many, in the church and outside the church, because we keep insisting on the whole counsel of God, on the fullness of the faith, and that they find offensive. It used to be that the church as a whole believed in the whole law of God. Now, they question that. If they will admit something is law, it’ll be one or two of the Ten Commandments and no more. They are abandoning the word of God. We are insisting on the return to the word of God, and its rule over us and the church. We believe that if one is saved, then the whole word of God must be for him, binding and important.

Well, this is why I’m so grateful to all of you. Without you we could not have done what we have done. Without you we have no future. I know the thinking of our trustees and staff, how in the days and years ahead they plan to implement and further the foundations I laid, and to extend the work into other spheres. They will need your faithful and continued support. I’m in prayer every day on this matter. Chalcedon must be supported. Chalcedon must continue to do its work and increase its scope, because we are living in very troubled and difficult times, when the world is facing the wrath of God for its departure from him and his word.

Now, in the months and years ahead, piece by piece, some of our planning and thinking will be made known to you by the staff. Please pay attention and be helpful. Meanwhile, continue your support and God bless you as you do. I am, as I said, eighty-three. I am both eager and ready to go home to be with the Lord and with countless friends and relatives who died in the faith. I’m also eager to see the work of Chalcedon furthered and extended. I tell myself I should not worry about the future of Chalcedon. It’s the Lord’s work, and the people of God will support it, but at times I still am anxious as to the extent of that support. We believe that the whole word of God is needed in order to turn this world around and to make it the kingdom of God. If you share that belief with us, please continue your support and God bless you.

I said at the beginning I’m very grateful for your support. When I began, it was with only a small handful of readers. The first issue of The Chalcedon Report was published in sixty copies, of which about fifty were mailed out. We didn’t have quite sixty people, but we did print a few extra. Now, of course, you number in the thousands. I can look hopefully to the future that your number will increase as will your support. I believe that God called me to this work. From my earliest years as I saw the weakness of the churches, as a boy, and then as a young man when I went to work on the Indian reservation, and then in a church or two. I knew what was needed, and when we established Chalcedon, I proceeded to develop that emphasis.

Now, thanks be to God, we have some wonderful people here at Chalcedon who believe the same thing and will do all they can to promote it. The rest is up to you. Will you support them? I thank God for your support to this day. I pray that God will give you grace to continue and to increase that support so that the kingdoms of this world might become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.

God bless you for listening. I cherish this opportunity of talking to you. It’s time for me to stop, and I find it difficult to do so, because I enjoy sharing my thinking with you, and I am grateful to you for your support. God bless you.

End of tape