The Continuing Legacy of Christian Reconstruction

[TheGeneral]

Otto Scott once casually expressed to me his dislike of the term "presupposition" because it was redundant. A presupposition is, in fact, a supposition. The term is intentionally redundant, of course. It means that our suppositions, our starting points, are themselves based on assumptions. Rationalism says man's mind, his reason, can determine and know truth. Presuppositionalism says man's reason is so dependent on his creator that knowledge must begin with God's revelation of Himself. Presuppositionalism is contrasted with all forms of rationalism, particularly evidentialism. Evidentialism is the approach of trying to prove God exists and that His Word is true. The Arminian emphasis on free will has elevated man's reason and will and has always relied on evidence or emotional appeals to sway man.

Link to full article:
http://www.theamericanview.com/index.php?id=827

[ScottEash]

I found this article to be a helpful introduction to Christian Reconstructionism (CR). It appears to me that most of the criticisms of CR are made because people have never read anything by Rushdoony, Bahnsen, or other proponents of CR. If people would just read what CR's teach - in their own words - most of the criticisms of CR would vanish.

[JLofton]

You're so right, Scott. In the early 1980s, when I was the Editor of Richard Viguerie's "Conservative Digest," I told him about Rushdoony being my theological mentor. He immediately denouced Rush harshly and, of course, inaccurately. When I asked him if he'd ever listened to any of Rush's tapes or read anything by him, he replied: "No, and I never will!"

[Centurion]

On a similar note, most critiques of Gary North have nothing explicitly to do with his prolific books, articles and tapes from the past four decades; rather, they comprise second and third-hand personality anecdotes or slanderous myths regarding his Y2K commentaries.

Google gossip and God-hating resources posted therein don't help, but this is life in the theologically and culturally-important fast lanes: exhilerating and life-changing!

Persecution was promised, was it not?