Duty

The Open Door

A grieving friend recently told how she has faced her sorrows by trusting that whenever God closes a door, He also opens another an outlook rooted in the promise that all things work together for good to those who love Him. The real danger comes when people fixate on a closed door, living in the past, refusing God’s providence, and becoming blind to any future; one acquaintance, who spent fifteen years lamenting an old hurt, finally collapsed morally because he would not move on. When we cling to what God has shut, we cut ourselves off from life, growth, and the opportunities His grace continually provides. Scripture assures us that for His people, God sets before us an open door which no man can shut, and our task is to look for that door rather than mourn the one behind us.

Easy Chair No. 148, June 4, 1987 — The French Revolution: The Revolution That Never Ended

In *Easy Chair 148* (June 4, 1987), R.J. Rushdoony and Otto Scott argue that the French Revolution didn’t merely “happen” in history—it **still shapes the modern world**, and its errors keep replaying wherever elites try to seize man’s destiny. They trace the revolution’s logic back to Enlightenment assumptions (especially Locke’s belief in morally “neutral” man who can be remade by education), producing the modern self-appointed class that claims to be **the voice of reason and virtue**—and therefore entitled to rule, censor, purge, and compel. Scott emphasizes that the French Revolution became the template for later leftist revolutions: step-by-step radicalization, propaganda dressed as righteousness, selective moral outrage, the suppression of Christianity (while tolerating anti-Christian cults), public confessions and “purges,” state ownership of children, rewritten calendars and history, and the mass targeting of whole classes “for the crime of birth.” They warn that rhetoric about liberty and equality can mask “**…or death**,” and that revolutionary movements advance by isolating opponents, exploiting scandals, and keeping citizens trapped in short-term thinking. Their conclusion is urgent: because the revolutionary impulse is ultimately a war against God’s order, the only durable answer is a reawakened Christian community applying the whole Word of God to every area of life—unity, clarity, and reconstruction—before the revolution finishes what it started. #EasyChair #Rushdoony #OttoScott #FrenchRevolution #Robespierre #RevolutionaryMyth #CulturalMemory #Propaganda #Totalitarianism #ChristianWorldview #ChristianReconstruction #ApplyGodsWord

Rationalism and Heresy

Rationalism becomes heresy when it places human reason in judgment over God’s revelation. By demanding that Scripture first satisfy the standards of fallen reason, rationalism enthrones man as judge and reduces God to an object needing validation. This repeats the original sin of Genesis 3:5 man seeking to be his own god. Scripture teaches that the Fall corrupted not only man’s will but also his mind. Reason is not neutral, nor capable of rightly judging God apart from submission to His Word. When rationalism ignores the Fall, predestination, and the atonement, it distorts theology even when it uses orthodox language. True faith does not deny reason but restores it to its proper place: serving God’s revelation, not ruling over it. To reject this order is not orthodoxy with a flaw it is a fundamental departure from biblical Christianity.

Trusting God

Charles Spurgeon observed that when a man is down, he has his greatest opportunity to trust God, for a false faith survives only in calm waters, but true faith proves itself in storms. Many claim they cannot believe in a God who permits suffering, yet they raise their children with that same creed shielding them from every hardship and then wonder why those children grow into selfish, destructive adults. God indeed leads His people through the valley of the shadow of death, using affliction as the fire that purifies and prepares them for His service. Troubles are meant to drive us closer to Him, so that with David we may say, “When I am afraid, I will trust in Thee.” Looking back, we often see that without adversity we would never have gained wisdom or growth, for all things work together for good only to those who love God. In a fallen world, troubles are inevitable; the real question is whether they will expose unbelief or deepen our faith in the God who sustains us.

The Smiling Face of Evil

In “The Smiling Face of Evil,” Rushdoony warns that evil rarely appears brutal or grotesque but commonly presents itself as kind, helpful, idealistic, and morally concerned, masking its true nature behind pleasant words, good intentions, and public-relations charm. Drawing on personal anecdotes and biblical examples, he argues that Satan’s most effective strategy is not open hostility but deception—using humanitarian language, visions of peace, and promises of progress to replace God’s law with man-centered hopes, as seen in movements that borrow Christian language while opposing Christian truth. Because people prefer comfort to truth, the smiling face of evil is often embraced while prophetic honesty, like Paul’s, is rejected as harsh or unloving. Rushdoony concludes that when churches and societies prize affirmation over truth, they become complicit in deception, forgetting that sin earns death and that genuine love is found not in smooth words but in faithful obedience to Christ and His law-word.