The Open Door

Fear and the Present

To be afraid of the present is to be paralyzed by guilt and fear, so that even ordinary responsibilities feel overwhelming and are endlessly postponed, leaving life suspended between a haunting past and an imagined future that promises escape but never delivers it. Such people cannot live in the “now” because they are bound by unresolved sin and evaded responsibility, and every attempt to flee only deepens the burden, for no man can truly evade accountability before God. The present becomes livable only when we face our responsibility honestly, confess our failure to meet God’s requirements, and rest in Jesus Christ as our substitute, whose atonement frees our conscience and whose regenerating power restores us to faithful action. In Him, the present hour is no longer a threat to be feared but the arena of victorious living, where we move “from strength to strength,” trusting the Lord and finding blessedness in His grace.

What is Law?

Law is never morally neutral. Every law declares something right or wrong, because law is simply morality enforced. The real question isn’t whether we legislate morality, but whose morality rules. America’s legal system was built on Christian faith, and as that foundation is rejected, law and order inevitably decay. Laws can’t save souls but they can restrain evil and protect life. A revolution is underway, not just in courts or streets, but in minds, replacing God’s law with human opinion. The choice Scripture sets before us is stark: obedience and life, or rebellion and judgment. Which law governs you?

K!ll the Men, Take the Women: The Real Story of Genesis 6

Forget the giants — they're not in the Hebrew text. Genesis 6 describes something darker: a campaign to exterminate the godly line by murdering the men and seizing the women, until eight souls remained. Nathan F. Conkey walks through Genesis 4–6 and asks: if believers and unbelievers really share a "common kingdom," why was God's covenant community nearly wiped off the earth? Episode 4.3 of God's World, God's Way. Free audiobooks, eBooks, and podcasts at CR101radio.com.

Freedom and Responsibility

True freedom always carries responsibility and risk. When people refuse to govern themselves under God’s moral law, they invite control by bureaucracies that promise security but deliver slavery. A “risk-free” society is not a free one it replaces personal responsibility with regulation and substitutes state providence for God’s providence. Scripture links freedom to obedience, not license. God’s law requires accountability (as in safeguards that prevent harm), not bureaucratic micromanagement. When sin is excused and risk is treated as evil, freedom erodes, taxes multiply, and power shifts to unelected administrators. In rejecting God’s law, societies trade liberty for control and then complain about the chains they chose.

Easy Chair No. 153, September 4, 1987 - The Contemporary Influence of the Transcendentalists

Dr. Rushdoony and Otto Scott analyze modernism as a cultural and intellectual force rooted in the Transcendentalists, particularly Emerson and Frothingham, which rejects God and biblical authority in favor of the spirit of the age. Modernism elevates human impulses, experience, and cultural trends above objective moral standards, affecting education, art, literature, and politics. Scott emphasizes that liberalism, as the practical expression of modernism, erodes societal norms and weakens resistance to evil, while Rushdoony warns that liberal clergy spread this ideology within churches. Together, they conclude modernism functions as an anti-Christian force, dismantling Christian civilization and replacing divine order with human-centered, relativistic values.