Standards

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.

How the Christian Will Reconquer Through Economics: The Problem and the Very Great Hope (Economics, Money, and Hope) (Remastered)

This opening session argues that economic collapse is not accidental but moral, the predictable fruit of a statist, fiat-driven world that has abandoned God’s created order. Using Christ’s parable of the steward, the teaching confronts Christian other-worldliness and insists that faithful stewardship of money is a spiritual requirement, not a worldly distraction. Humanistic economics treats reality as something man can remake by decree—fiat money, fiat law, fiat planning—but Scripture declares a law-governed universe where debt enslaves, inflation punishes thrift, and judgment is built into disobedience itself. The modern debt mountain—personal, corporate, and governmental—is portrayed as borrowing against a future that is now running out, making inflation the false “salvation” of a bankrupt order. Yet this crisis is framed as a salvation-judgment: God clearing the ground for reconstruction. The Christian hope is not political tinkering but recapitalization—material, moral, and spiritual—through hard money, thrift, work, character, and obedience to God’s law, laying the foundation for a renewed Christian social order. #BiblicalEconomics #ChristianReconstruction #DebtAndJudgment #AgainstFiatMoney #Stewardship #GodsLawOrder #EconomicCrisis #HardMoney #ThriftAndWork #FaithAndEconomics #Chalcedon #HopeThroughObedience

The Lord Directeth

As we look back on our lives, we often see how little of it unfolded according to our own plans, and this can trouble us unless we grasp the truth Solomon expressed: “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps” (Prov. 16:9). We are responsible for our choices and accountable for our actions, yet we are not omnipotent, and countless forces lie beyond our control, making self-directed planning an invitation to frustration. Scripture reminds us that while we may devise plans, only God governs the course of our lives, and this is not a cause for fear but for confidence. When our plans fail, it is not because life lacks purpose, but because God’s wiser and better purpose prevails, ordering even disappointment for our good. For those who walk by faith in Christ, no defeat is final and no detour is meaningless, because the Lord’s direction is sure, loving, and infallible, even when the road is dark.

Problems

A man recently sighed, “Problems, problems how I wish I could be rid of them,” and in truth we all share that longing at times. Yet problems never disappear; they simply change shape, following us through childhood, youth, adulthood, and old age, and appearing in our homes, work, churches, nation, and even our own hearts. They belong to life in a fallen world, but even before the Fall Adam faced the challenges of cultivating Eden and the daily test of obedience before the forbidden tree. To solve one problem is merely to create the conditions for the next, for problems are both the result of sin and the means of growth. Because this is God’s world, every problem has an answer, and each answer moves us on to new testing until we finally enter God’s eternal Kingdom. Problems, then, are opportunities sent by God occasions to grow, to obey, and to pursue our calling.