Easy Chair No. 147, May 26, 1987 - The Tree of Hate, Dr. Philip Wayne Powell

The Faith of St. Patrick

What made St. Patrick great wasn’t superior training, intellect, or strategy but an unshakable trust in God. Surrounded by danger, barbarian invasions, and threats of death, Patrick cast himself entirely on God’s providence, believing not that he would be spared hardship, but that God would bring good no matter the outcome. He preached both judgment and mercy without fear, confronted tyrants, pursued enemies with the gospel, and anchored his life in one book the Bible. While others were overwhelmed by obstacles, Patrick was impressed by God, and that faith changed a nation. The question remains just as sharp today: what impresses you more your problems, or your God?

Rationalism and History

Rationalism consistently detaches truth from history, treating abstract ideas and human reasoning as ultimate rather than God’s acts in time. This stands in direct opposition to Christianity, which is grounded in real historical events the Fall, the Incarnation, and the Atonement. Scripture proclaims that the Word became flesh, a claim Greek and modern philosophy reject because it unites truth with history. By presupposing man’s mind instead of God, rationalism ends in idolatry: gods made in man’s image and truth judged by human logic. Biblical faith begins with God’s revelation in history and sees human reason as fallen and limited. True knowledge is not autonomous but analogical thinking God’s thoughts after Him. When rationalism ignores history, it ultimately ignores God.

Easy Chair No. 149, July the 9th, 1987 — Money and Debt: Paper Wealth, Real Slavery

In *Easy Chair 149* (July 9, 1987), R.J. Rushdoony and Otto Scott warn that money and debt are not merely “economic” topics but **religious and moral realities**—because a culture’s view of money reveals where its faith rests. Scott argues the modern world has entered an unprecedented situation: *“money”* as true wealth has largely disappeared, replaced by **paper claims backed by nothing—worse than nothing, backed by debt**. Rushdoony presses the point: modern states *monetize debt*, so currency increasingly represents obligations rather than accumulated production, inviting inflation, instability, and eventual collapse. They highlight how bond-market fragility threatens pension funds, how real estate values are illusions dependent on willing buyers, and how inflation quietly steals purchasing power (war bonds, savings, wages) while seducing people with a false “rising tide” prosperity. Over and over they return to the biblical diagnosis: **debt enslaves** (Prov. 22:7), long-term debt violates God’s pattern (Deut. 15’s debt limits and release), and a system built on perpetual interest and expanding credit cannot endure without breaking families and nations. Both men argue that abandoning gold and silver as honest money accelerates the growth of the state, because paper money centralizes control: if the government can create and debase currency, it can regulate, ration, surveil, and ultimately **strip citizens of independence**—even “homeownership” becomes conditional when property taxes function like rent. Rushdoony adds that economic cycles and the biblical sabbatical/Jubilee structure restrain runaway debt and inflation by design, forcing thrift, periodic reset, and stability—whereas modern society, trusting the state instead of God, keeps choosing short-term gain and “larceny in the heart” over covenant faithfulness. Their conclusion is stark: **a people with no real money will not remain a free people**, and unless debt is faced as sin and bondage—not a lifestyle—despotism is the natural destination. #EasyChair #Rushdoony #OttoScott #MoneyAndDebt #Inflation #SoundMoney #DebtSlavery #BiblicalEconomics #Deuteronomy15 #Jubilee #Freedom #ChristianReconstruction

Relativism

In “Relativism,” Rushdoony argues that denying God leads inevitably to the denial of objective meaning, right and wrong, and moral limits, leaving society governed only by interest, power, and the expanding authority of the state. He critiques relativism as a self-blinding faith that mistakes subjective experience for reality, using it to erase moral distinctions and absolutes while claiming intellectual sophistication. This worldview, he contends, undercuts any principled resistance to tyranny, dissolves the foundations of education, marriage, and work, and trains people especially the young for irrelevance, anarchy, and ultimately slavery. Because politics and culture are inseparable from religious presuppositions, the spread of relativism accelerates social decay and statist control, whereas only faith in God and His unchanging truth can provide meaning, liberty, and a future grounded on the Rock rather than the shifting sands of unbelief.

Inscription at Timgad

An ancient Roman inscription declared, “To hunt, to bathe, to play, to laugh that is life,” and it perfectly captured the mindset that led Rome to collapse. When civilizations abandon faith, they stop thinking about responsibility, hope, and the future, and instead live for present pleasure alone. History shows that technology, power, and comfort cannot save a people without belief good plumbing didn’t save Crete, and pleasure didn’t save Rome. It was not the powerful Romans who ultimately endured, but the persecuted Christians who lived by faith and hope in Christ. Once again, we are surrounded by a culture strong in numbers but empty of hope so the question remains: are you standing with faith and victory, or with those repeating Rome’s last mistake?