The best description of the tenets of Christian Reconstruction, as espoused by Dr. R. J. Rushdoony, is found in his
Christian Manifesto":
- 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.
- 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.
- Salvation is not by politics, education, the church, or any agency or person other than Jesus Christ our Lord.
- 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
- Civil rulers who rule without the Lord and His law word are, as Augustine said, no different than a mafia, only more powerful.
- 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.
- For the state to equate itself with government is tyranny and evil.
- The Christian man is the only true free man in all the world, and he is called to exercise dominion over all the earth.
- Humanism is the way of death and is the essence of original sin, or man trying to be his own god.
- All men, things, and institutions must serve God, or be judged by Him.
In other words, Jesus is Lord, not guru. He rules through all forms of human government -- the self-government of the Christian person, and the responsible exercise of such offices as parent, pastor, or juror.
I can see the appeal of the notion that Jesus is our pet guru, our "personal" spiritual adviser, whose reign extends no further than the sub-rational, emotional, subjective, "realm of the heart." A guru exists to make us feel better. A Lord has something greater than our satisfaction with ourselves in mind.
Help me please. Where in the Bible does it say that man is able to bring about a Christian Reconstruction? As I read it, we are on a steady downhill slide into the great abyss and ain’t nothing gonna change that until Christ’s return.