CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION

The best description of the tenets of Christian Reconstruction, as espoused by Dr. R. J. Rushdoony, is found in his "Christian Manifesto"¹:

1. Sovereignty is an attribute of God alone, not of man nor the state. God alone is Lord or Sovereign over all things; over state, school, family, vocations, society and all things else.
2. The Bible is given as the common law of men and nations and was for most of U. S. History the common law, as Justice Story declared.
3. Salvation is not by politics, education, the church, or any agency or person other than Jesus Christ our Lord.
4. The myth of Machiavelli, that, by state control at the top, bad men can make a good society is at the root of our cultural crisis and growing collapse. A good omelet cannot be made with bad eggs. Truly redeemed men are necessary for a good society.²
5. Civil rulers who rule without the Lord and His law word are, as Augustine said, no different than a mafia, only more powerful.
6. The state is not the government, but one form of government among many, others being the self-government of the Christian man, the family, the school, the church, vocations and society. The state is civil government, a ministry of justice.
7. For the state to equate itself with government is tyranny and evil.
8. The Christian man is the only true free man in all the world, and he is called to exercise dominion over all the earth.
9. Humanism is the way of death and is the essence of original sin, or man trying to be his own god.
10. All men, things, and institutions must serve God, or be judged by Him.

"It is urgently important that we think now of Christian reconstruction, but our thinking cannot be idle talk: it must be both Biblical and also practically applied in our daily life. There are many people ready to eliminate statism, but they have nothing but wishing to replace it. How then will independent schools, private welfare, and individual initiative deal with the vast complex of our social problems? Already most of our Christian conservative causes, and Christian schools, are continually short of funds. What is the answer?

"In any advanced social order, social financing is a major public necessity. The social order cannot exist without a vast network of social institutions which require financing and support. If a Christian concept of social financing is lacking, then the state moves in quickly to supply the lack and gain the social control which results. Social financing means social power."³

1. R. J. Rushdoony, Chalcedon Report No. 225, “A Christian Manifesto,” April 1984 (c.f., Roots of Reconstruction, p. 1114f).
2. This is not to suggest that Rushdoony endorsed simply replacing “bad men” with “godly men” at the top of a state-run society. Rushdoony’s concept of theocracy was not a centralized form of power in the hands of clerical leaders. He wrote, “Few things are more commonly misunderstood than the nature and meaning of theocracy. It is commonly assumed to be a dictatorial rule by self-appointed men who claim to rule for God. In reality, theocracy in Biblical law is the closest thing to a radical libertarianism that can be had” (Roots of Reconstruction, p. 63).
3. R. J. Rushdoony, Roots of Reconstruction (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, 1991), 605.

TRUE FREEDOM COMES FROM THE LORD JESUS CHRIST

PSALM 24:1-3
The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.
Who shall ascend inot the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?

PSALM 33:8-22
Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.
The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of non effect.
The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men.
From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works.
Their is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.
An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.
Behold, he eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;
To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield.
For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.
Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee.

PSALM 34:19
Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.

PROVERBS 28:13
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.

JOHN 14:6
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

EPHESIANS 2:8,9
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
No of works, lest any man should boast.

ACTS 3:19
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out....

ACTS 16:31
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved...
........................................................................................................................................

Freedom's Real Enemies
By Chuck Baldwin
June 11, 2010
This column is archived at
http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?p=1708


Politicians in Washington, D.C., love to manufacture a crisis. The crisis
generates fear within the citizenry, thereby allowing the federal government
to centralize more and more power. During a crisis, the citizenry becomes
much more forgiving of federal abuses and accommodating of federal
encroachments than it otherwise would be without a crisis. Hence, we have a
federal "war on drugs," and a "war on poverty," and a "war on terror," and
an "oil crisis," and an "energy crisis," and a "domestic terrorism crisis,"
and an "education crisis," and a "border crisis," and an "economic
crisis"--Blah! Blah! Blah!

You can mark it down: every major crisis that America has faced over the
last several decades has been either manufactured or facilitated by policies
and activities originating in Washington, D.C. But at the same time that DC
is creating these crises, it categorizes any ideological group it finds
distasteful as a convenient scapegoat. These convenient scapegoats can
include "angry white guys," "tea party extremists," "a vast right-wing
conspiracy," Constitution Party or Libertarian Party "extremists," "Second
Amendment extremists" (gun owners), "pro-life extremists," ad infinitum, ad
nauseam.

Yet, while DC's elitists are plotting America's next crisis and figuring out
whom to categorize as America's next "extremist," some real enemies are
waging war against the freedoms and liberties of our once-great republic.
And, ladies and gentlemen, these enemies are much more subtle, a lot closer,
and much more dangerous than almost anything you are being told about.

Here are some of freedom's real enemies:

Big Cities

When the United States was a much smaller--much more agricultural--nation,
our freedoms were mostly intact. The mass exodus out of rural America into
urban America has been a bane of freedom--and it will continue to be so.

Thomas Jefferson addressed this issue astutely when he wrote in a letter to
James Madison, "When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in
Europe, we shall become corrupt as in Europe." (Source: The Jeffersonian
Cyclopedia, A Comprehensive Collection of the Views of Thomas Jefferson)

Jefferson spoke again of this danger in a letter to Benjamin Rush. He wrote,
"I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health, and the
liberties of man. True, they nourish some of the elegant arts, but the
useful ones can thrive elsewhere, and less perfection in the others, with
more health, virtue and freedom, would be my choice." (Source: Ibid.)

Big cities are most always more liberal, more socialistic, more utopian, and
more centralist. Citizens living in big cities readily submit to the
machinations and designs of Big Government with much greater regularity than
do their rural counterparts. In states where a handful of big cities
dominate State politics, Big-Government policies almost always take over the
politics of the entire State. If you doubt that, just speak with
freedom-loving citizens in New York, Illinois, or Maryland.

Consider, specifically, the freedom most necessary to preserve our
liberties: the right of the people to keep and bear arms. People in states
that are less populated enjoy much greater liberty than do people in heavily
populated states. For example, Boston's Gun Bible (BGB) ranks the states
according to the degree of gun ownership (and possession) protection in each
State. It is no coincidence that the states with sparser populations are
much freer than states with denser populations.

Here is BGB's breakdown of the most and least free gun ownership states:

Most Free States:

1. Vermont
2. Idaho and Kentucky (tie)
3. Louisiana and Alaska (tie)
4. Wyoming
5. Montana

Least Free States:

1. New Jersey
2. Illinois
3. Hawaii
4. Massachusetts
5. New York

Population density in the "most free" states is less than 50 persons per
square mile, while in the "least free" states it is more than 460 persons
per square mile. Case closed!

While big cities will typically tolerate much more in the way of
licentiousness and sexual perversion, they are also the first to tolerate
Big-Government socialism. Without a doubt, Thomas Jefferson was right: big
cities are "pestilential to the morals, the health, and the liberties of
man."

If you want to live free in the future, you will probably need to leave the
big city--and perhaps the states that are dominated by big cities.

The National News Media

For the most part, the national news media is no friend of freedom. About
all most of them know of the US Constitution is the part about the "freedom
of the press" (from the First Amendment, of course). Watch any of the Big
Three television network newscasts on any weekday evening, and what will you
see? You will see the exact same stories regurgitated over and over
again--even with the exact same spin! And that spin is most always tilted
toward bigger and bigger government. This goes on night after night, week
after week, month after month, and year after year. But this is all just
coincidental, right? Get real!

The cable news networks are not much better. About the only difference
between cable networks is that CNN will provide cover for Big Government
Democrats while viciously attacking all things Republican, and FOX NEWS will
provide cover for Big Government Republicans while viciously attacking all
things Democrat.

Face it: the national news media is intoxicated with Two Party Politics.
They really don't care nearly as much about the fundamental tenets and
principles of liberty as they do about whether a Democrat or Republican wins
office. Washington's media elite are wined and dined by the same party
politicians that they cover on television or in the newspaper. (What a
racket!) Do you really think any major media news personality is going to
risk losing his or her job (which is exactly what would happen) by asking
too many questions, or boring too deeply, or straying too far off the
reservation? Once again, get real! All of these guys and gals know exactly
where the line--and the "third rail"--is located. And they all will stay
clear of both! It's not about reporting the news, or defending liberty, or
anything of the sort. It is about pleasing their big corporate
sponsors--corporate sponsors who are in bed with the elites from both major
political parties, by the way!

As long as the American people continue to allow the national news media to
manipulate and spin the news, our liberties will continue to erode.

Big Business

In fact, Big Anything can be freedom's enemy: Big Business, Big Labor, Big
Media, Big Cities, and Big Religion. Big Anything!

However, the rate and degree to which Big Business has been able to advance
during the last half of the twentieth century--and now into the twenty-first
century--is especially problematic for the survival of liberty. Dear friend,
it is a mistake to equate Big Business with freedom. Big Business has little
to do with capitalism and free enterprise and much to do with monopolism and
globalism. Big Business does not want to compete with private enterprise; it
wants to crush it! Big Business sees Big Government as a friend and partner.
In fact, Big Business and Big Government are conjoined twins. They grow and
live as one.

Accordingly, it is no accident that when the Bilderbergers got together a
few days ago at the Hotel Dolce in Sitges, Spain, for their super-secret
meeting, the list of attendees included the cabal of super-elites from Big
Government, Big Business, Big Academia, and Big Media. People such as Bill
Gates (Microsoft), Roger Altman (former Deputy Secretary of the US
Treasury), Martin Feldstein (Harvard University), Niall Ferguson (Harvard
University), Philip Gordon (Assistant Secretary of State for European and
Eurasian Affairs), Donald Graham (The Washington Post), Richard Holbrooke
(Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan), Robert Hormats (Under
Secretary for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs), Henry Kissinger
(former Secretary of State), Klaus Kleinfeld (Chairman and CEO, Alcoa),
Craig Mundie (Microsoft), Peter Orszag (Director, Office of Management and
Budget), Charlie Rose (Producer, Rose Communications), Robert Rubin
(Co-Chairman, Council on Foreign Relations; former Secretary of the
Treasury), Eric Schmidt (CEO and Chairman of the Board, Google), James
Steinberg (Deputy Secretary of State), Lawrence Summers (Director, National
Economic Council), Christine Varney (Assistant Attorney General for
Antitrust), and Paul Volcker (Chairman, Economic Recovery Advisory Board).
And please remember that these are only the names of those that were
published. The complete list of attendees is top secret and never released.
For example, was Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner there? He is a
Bilderberg (and CFR) member.

But of course, this meeting--complete with the tightest security and secrecy
possible--is only for the purpose of social fellowship and clubmanship,
right? That the world's most interconnected business, governmental, and
media elites would meet outside the viewing and listening of everyone is
supposed to be dismissed as irrelevant and insignificant, right? Well, if
you get your news from ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, or FOX NEWS, that is exactly what
you are being led to believe.

Yet, Big Business has been conspiring with Big Government for the purpose of
personal aggrandizement (at the cost of liberty, of course) for
decades--probably centuries. Remember, it took an act of Congress to stop
old Prescott Bush (George H.W. Bush's father and G.W. Bush's grandfather)
from sending financial assistance to Nazi Germany. Know, too, that
international bankers today are supporting governments (some that are openly
hostile to the United States) in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Again,
Big Business and Big Government are conjoined twins--an interconnected body
that grows in unison at the expense of our liberties.

Freedom has many more real enemies that could be added to this list, of
course; and maybe in the future we can talk more about them. For now,
recognize that our liberties are hanging by a thread in this country. And
the next time you hear someone in Washington, D.C., or the national news
media railing against the latest "crisis" that requires Big Government to
fix, please remember who the real enemy is.

Random

These are just a bunch of random pictures.

Three little chicks. Jordon put four eggs under a hen and only three of them hatched. He only put four because the type of chickens we have aren't suppose to sit. But this one did and there is another one sitting.


Boaz goofing off.

Boaz on the riding mower. Everyone wants to mow when there is a riding mower involved.

The first three Zucchini from our garden.

America's Bread And Circus Society by Chuck Baldwin

America's Bread And Circus Society
By Chuck Baldwin
June 8, 2010


This column is archived at
http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?p=1678


The Roman poet Juvenal (circa 100 A.D.) wrote regarding the way latter-day
Roman emperors retained power and control over the masses that were
seemingly more than happy to obsess themselves with trivialities and
self-indulgences while their once-great-and-powerful empire collapsed before
their very eyes. He wrote:

"Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have
abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out
military command, high civil office, legions--everything, now restrains
itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses."

I submit that a good many in America are, like Rome of old, carelessly
frittering away their God-given liberties, foolishly clamoring for nothing
more than government handouts and never-ending entertainment. Millions and
millions of Americans (especially males) are literally intoxicated with
sports. Sports are no longer a great American pastime; they are now a great
American obsession.

Mind you, this writer has been a sports fan all of his life. I began playing
organized basketball in the fifth grade; I was on the high school wrestling
team; I played football in high school and college; and I ran track. Still
today, I enjoy watching a good NFL game (yes, I'm still a Green Bay Packers
fan), a good college game when the Gators are playing, a good NCAA men's
basketball game (especially during the tournament--even more so when the
Hoosiers are in it), and any NBA championship series between the Celtics and
Lakers (I root for Boston). And I even like to watch a round of professional
golf once in a while (it helps me go to sleep when I'm trying to take a
nap). But none of the above will interfere with anything that is important,
and I am not going to plan my whole universe around any of it. If it is
convenient, I will watch. If it's not, I will read about it in the sports
section of the newspaper. And I'm certainly not going to spend my
hard-earned money following any sports team (even those I like) all over the
country like some rock band groupie.

I am not talking about sports in general; I am talking about the way many
American men have allowed sports to control and dominate their lives. With
many, sports are not just a hobby; they are a religion. I cannot count the
number of conversations between men that I overhear in restaurants,
airplanes, boardrooms, and, yes, even church houses, in which every man in
the circle is literally consumed with all sorts of sports facts,
information, and opinions. In many such discussions, these men will talk
about nothing else. To these men, there is absolutely nothing in the world
more important than the latest sports score, announcement, or trade.
NOTHING!

And there is also a very real psychological pitfall associated with a man's
intoxication with sports. I submit that an obsession with sports gives men a
false sense of masculinity and actually serves to steal true manhood from
them.

For example, it used to be when men stripped their shirts off and painted
their faces, they were heading to the battlefield to kill the tyrant's
troops. Now they are headed off to the sports coliseum to watch a football
game. A man's ego and machismo was once used to protect his family and
freedom; now it's used to tout batting averages and box scores. The fact is,
if we could get the average American male to get as exercised and energized
about defending the historic principles upon which liberty and Western
Civilization are built as he is in defending his favorite quarterback or
NASCAR driver, our country would not be in the shape it is in today.

The sad reality is that much of today's masculinity is experienced only
vicariously through a variety of sports teams and personalities. Instead of
personally flexing our muscles for God and country, freedom and liberty, or
home and hearth, we punch the air and beat our chests over touchdowns and
home runs (even though we had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with them
ourselves). Instead of getting in the face of these would-be tyrants in
Washington, D.C., who are doing everything they can to steal the American
dream, we get in the face of the poor umpire who makes a bad call or the
Little League coach who doesn't play my son enough. Our happiness,
well-being, and mood are not determined by anything personally achieved (or
lost), but by what others accomplished (or didn't accomplish) at the ball
park. Whether our children inherit a land of liberty and freedom does not
seem nearly as important as whether they make the starting lineup on the
football team.

Add to an epidemic obsession with sports the demand for more and more
handouts from Big Brother and the outlook for liberty is not good.
Everywhere we turn, we seem to hear people clamoring for government to give
them more and more. They expect government to supply their every need and
meet their every demand. They then have the gall to turn around and say,
"God bless America: land of the free"?

Ladies and gentlemen, one cannot have it both ways. If we expect government
to be our supplier, we cannot expect that it will not become our master.
Always remember this: government has nothing to give except that it first
takes it from someone else. Every dollar and every job that government gives
is first taken from someone else. Furthermore, every job given to government
is another freedom--and another dollar--taken from the citizenry. Every
government job brings with it a restriction, a prohibition, a regulation, an
inspection, a fee, a tax, an assessment, etc. As government grows, freedom
shrinks. As government spends, wealth shrinks. And as government hires,
opportunity shrinks.

Most historians agree with Juvenal that the mighty Roman Empire collapsed
from within due to a morally reckless, selfish, pleasure-crazed,
sports-obsessed, bread and circus society that willingly surrendered the
principles of self-government to an insatiable central government that,
through perpetual wars and incessant handouts, destroyed a once-great
republic.

By all appearances, the bread and circus society has reared its ugly head in
America. And make no mistake about it: if the people of the United States do
not quickly repent of this madness, the consequences will be just as
destructive for our once-great republic as it was for Rome.

Television induced labotamy

Television Induced Labotamy: A Startling Report From Scientist Samuel Phillips on Damage Caused By Exposure to the Babylon Box from Douglas Phillips on Vimeo.

Allen and Natasha

Here are several pictures of Natasha and Allen. We have been able to see them a lot recently.

This was when Johanna, Jordon, and I went over there a couple of days ago. We had chocolate pudding and Natasha loved it. It was very good for making messes.
Miss Mess.



Monday, they came over for supper.

And she loves homemade ice cream.
Time to milk. Allen likes milking our cow, Ellie Sue. Every time he is here he asks if it's time to milk.
Milking.
Watching the chickens.


This is when Levi and Johanna went over there yesterday.
I think she just woke up.





Yesterday, Allen came home with Johanna and spent the night.
This is him and Boaz "boxing."

Abigail's Baptism

Sunday the 23rd Abigail got baptized.


The creek was not very deep as you can see. They had to sit down.