A Word in Season: Messages by R.J. Rushdoony on the Faith for All of Life

My barber told me of his first trip back to Italy after becoming an American citizen: when a state official tried to order him around as though he were still a local boy, he told the man off and declared that neither he, nor Mussolini, nor the king himself could command him at which point the official realized he was dealing with a free American, not a subject. Today, it is harder to enjoy that ki...

A Russian proverb says, “A dog is wiser than a woman: he won’t bark at his master,” a humorous reminder that even a dog knows not to attack the one who cares for him yet husbands and wives often bark at the very person most loyal to them. Scripture warns that “death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Prov. 18:21), and rash, sharp words wound like a sword, while kind words heal. When marriag...

It is possible to cure a headache by blowing out your brains, but no sane man would recommend such a remedy; likewise, a salve may soothe the pain of cancer for a moment, but it cures nothing. These are the kinds of false cures Jeremiah condemned when he said of Judah’s leaders, “They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace” (Jer. 6:...

Modern man has become an injustice collector, eagerly tallying every wrong in the world in order to justify himself. To such people, life is a rigged game a raw deal that vindicates their failures and excuses their irresponsibility. As Roger Price noted, the man who “believes in injustice” does so precisely because, in an unjust universe, he cannot be held to account. Scripture, however, teaches t...

Scripture teaches that while sickness and evil are contagious, holiness is not Haggai’s warning makes clear that impurity spreads easily, but righteousness never transfers by proximity. Yet many parents and pastors still imagine that morally vulnerable people can lift up corrupt companions, when in reality the downward pull of sin is far stronger than the upward pull of virtue. Rousseau lecturing...

A man who spends years on a project only to watch another stumble onto the solution can easily become bitter but Scripture warns that bitterness is far more dangerous than disappointment. Hebrews 12 teaches us to cling to God’s grace, flee profaneness like Esau’s, and especially guard against any “root of bitterness,” because once it takes hold, it not only corrodes our own soul but spreads like a...

There is no such thing as a right to sin, yet many people live as though their good works entitle them to an occasional moral holiday. A church officer who tithed faithfully excused a deliberate violation of God’s law by claiming he had “earned a little exemption,” and a devout woman justified her disobedience by insisting that “one sin shouldn’t matter” after all her service. Such thinking is not...

Scripture makes unmistakably clear that God accepts no excuses. In Genesis 3:9–19, Adam’s and Eve’s attempts to shift blame only deepen their guilt, revealing that excuses are grounds for judgment, not mitigation. Because God requires perfect faith and obedience, Christ fulfilled this in our place and then gives us grace so that we, in turn, may obey Him. Yet men prefer excuses to obedience, as Je...

Proverbs 30:20 gives a penetrating insight into sin: “Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.” Just as a ship leaves no track in the sea, or an eagle in the sky, and just as a person wipes away the crumbs from a meal, so the sinner imagines that sin leaves no lasting mark wipe the mouth, forget the act, and declare innocence....

A modern young woman, caught in bed with her lover, became furious when her husband discovered the affair, beat the adulterer, and threw him out; she called the police and demanded his arrest for violating her “privacy” and “rights.” Outraged when the officers refused, she saw the social order not her sin as the problem. This is precisely what Proverbs 29:18 (Berkeley Version) warns about: “Where...

Truly blind men are those who trust only what they see and therefore see nothing. They look at the world’s overwhelming order and design yet insist it is accidental, exercising a faith in mindless miracles far greater than anything the Bible requires. Scripture declares that creation openly displays God’s glory (Ps. 19:1) and that His eternal power is “clearly seen” in all He has made, leaving men...

One of the evidences of our fallen nature is how deeply pride infects our sins: women may deny snoring, parishioners deny stinginess, and even criminals boast that their crimes have more “dignity” than others’. We are indulgent toward our own faults our sins seem understandable, even admirable but we resent the faults of those around us and wonder why they won’t change to suit us. Like Augustine,...

A striking feature of our age is the rise of pure self-righteousness the kind seen in a young wife who abandoned her family yet indignantly cried, “How can he do this to me after all I’ve done for him?” or in a pampered son who, despite receiving every advantage from devoted parents, angrily insisted they had “never done anything” for him. In both cases, the moral sickness is the same: the self-ri...

The ultimate sin, Scripture teaches, is the desire to reform others according to our own ideas a sinful attempt to play god by reshaping people to suit ourselves. Many of the conflicts people face in families, churches, and workplaces come from this very arrogance. God does not call us to change others; only He can do that. He calls us to change ourselves by conforming to His Word, while leaving t...

Spurgeon once said that many church members are like a neighbor’s pigs “all grunt and no bacon” and sadly the description fits far too many: believers whose contribution to Christ’s Kingdom is little more than a sour complaint. One pastor even lamented that a certain member was such a roadblock that if he joined the devil’s church, hell itself would start to crumble. Instead of manifesting the fru...

Spurgeon once said that many church members are like a neighbor’s pigs “all grunt and no bacon” and sadly the description fits far too many: believers whose contribution to Christ’s Kingdom is little more than a sour complaint. One pastor even lamented that a certain member was such a roadblock that if he joined the devil’s church, hell itself would start to crumble. Instead of manifesting the fru...

A recent study has revealed a shameful truth about the American church: the average pastor earns just $10,348 a year well below the federal poverty line with 14% earning under $6,000 and only 5% receiving more than $15,000. Meanwhile, truck drivers, electricians, lawyers, and dentists earn many times more, showing plainly that church members demand much from their pastors while valuing them little...

At a recent meeting I witnessed something chilling: men who profess Christ calmly violated a verbal contract and effectively stole half a million dollars all while claiming they were seeking “divine guidance.” That phrase itself is often a warning sign, for God’s true guidance is not mystical, private, or conveniently suited to our desires; it is written plainly in His Word. When people bypass Scr...

A familiar complaint insists that spending money on church buildings is wasteful even sinful. But Scripture says the opposite: God rebukes those who live in paneled houses while His house lies in neglect (Hag. 1:2–9). The idea that God deserves less than we give ourselves is not piety it is sin. Yet this argument, born from Enlightenment unbelief and perfected by Marxists, always follows the same...

Isaiah foretold a child whose birth would rearrange history: the Son given, the King whose government rests on His shoulder and whose peace will never stop increasing. Christmas celebrates that invasion the moment God entered the world in flesh, the moment the rightful Potentate, King of kings and Lord of lords, took the field. The war is not yet finished, but the outcome is certain: Christ will b...

An old saying tells us that if we talk, people will know we’re fools but if we keep silent, they may mistake us for wise. The truth is, most of us talk far too much, and our words reveal far too much about us: our vanity, our insecurity, our petty complaints, our gossip, our self-importance. Scripture reminds us that words are revelations. Christ Himself is called the Word, and Scripture is God’s...

We’ve all learned the hard way that many people who ask for advice don’t actually want counsel they want confirmation. They’ve already chosen their path, and if it succeeds, they take the credit; if it collapses, they blame the “advisers” who never advised them in the first place. Scripture explains why this happens: fools “would none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof” (Prov. 1:30). If p...

Aesop once told of a crow who envied the beauty of a swan and tried to change its habits only to discover that habits cannot change nature. That old fable speaks directly to our age. We spend billions tinkering with externals while ignoring the heart, and no amount of activism, protesting, or moral lecturing can turn a sinner into a saint apart from Jesus Christ. Yet many today inside the church a...

A 1966 scandal in England revealed how far a society can fall when authority forgets its purpose: a ten-year-old girl was seized from her mother and placed in a state home her “crime” nothing more than wiping her cutlery clean before meals. The case exposes a deeper hostility toward the family that has since gone global. Educational elites like James Bryant Conant insist that parents themselves ar...

Andre Gide once wrote of a man who fell into deep despair at the thought of buying new shoes not because of the cost, but because their wear reminded him of his own. In a godless age, even aging leather becomes a memento mori. Many today live that way: terrified of time, fleeing into distraction, denial, pleasure, or noise to avoid the one reality Scripture states plainly “it is appointed unto men...