The death of Dr. Gary North

Earlier today, I read that Dr. Gary North had died on February 24, 2022. The following was posted on Gary North’s Specific Answers website (link):

Gary North, RIP

When Gary Kilgore North passed away on February 24, 2022, at the age of 80, he left behind a massive storehouse of Christian scholarship without parallel in the modern church. For nearly fifty-five straight and solid years he applied himself as a craftsman with single-minded devotion to researching, writing, and speaking about God’s world from the perspective of God’s Word. While he lived his work benefited his large readership around the world. For generations to come it will be of great use to the Church of his Lord Jesus Christ.

[A concise biography of Dr. North follows the above, opening paragraph.]

Personally speaking, I became aware of Dr. North via an article by Rodney Clapp that was published in Christianity Today back on February 20, 1987 under the title, “Democracy as Heresy” (pp. 17-23). The article was a brief history of the movement that became known as “Christian Reconstructionism". [See Michael J. McVicar’s contribution at A.R.D.A.  for more historical details - link; McVicar is the author of the scholarly book, Christian Reconstruction, which I mentioned here at AF back on May 4, 2015 – link.]

Rodney Clapp included Dr. North as one of “the three primary figures of the movement" (p.18)—i.e. Christian Reconstuctionism—the other two being Greg L. Bahnsen who passed on Dec. 11, 1995, and R. J. Rushdoony who died on Feb. 8, 2001.

When the Christianity Today article was published, I was a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. I discovered that Dr. Bahnsen was an ordained minister of the OPC, and this prompted me to begin an in depth study into Christian Reconstuctionism. I ended up obtaining almost all of the books and journals published by Bahnsen, North and Rushdoony—as well as those by a number of their prominent followers—e.g. David Chilton, Gary DeMar, Kenneth Gentry, James Jordan, Ray Sutton. [See THIS LINK for free PDFs of dozens of their contributions.]

I was a devoted student of Christian Reconstructionism for well over a decade, with Dr. North being one of my favorite authors of the movement. Though I no longer consider myself part of the movement, I am able to acknowledge some positive influences and memories from that period of my studies.

It is my sincere hope that Dr. North is now with our Lord...

Grace and peace,

David 

New academic book on R. J. Rushdoony and Christian Reconstructionism

This morning, I found out about the above book on R. J. Rushdoony by Dr. Michael J. McVicar, assistant professor of religion at Florida State University. Given my long standing interest in Christian Reconstructionism, I immediately ordered the book, and then found a Google preview: LINK.

I also located an excellent (and lengthy) review of the book, that is (IMO), a must read: LINK.

As the review states, this is the, "First major book about R. J. Rushdoony", and that "the work's 1,017 endnotes underscore the workmanship of the author".

I suspect that those who have an interest in Christian Reconstructionism will 'open their wallets' and join me in purchasing this major treatment.

Now, I have to wait for the book to arrive...

Grace and peace,

David 

More free, online, theonomy/reconstructionism resources

Back on February 15, 2011 in a thread on theonomy/reconstructionism (HERE), I provided links (first; second) to "90-plus free books and 800-plus free newsletters", on this subject.

In the Nov./Dec. 2011 issue of Faith For All Life, that I received in the mail yesterday, another free, online resource for works on theonomy/reconstructionism was brought to the attention of its readers, with the heading: "Over 60 books now available for online reading at no cost!" (page 25). Below is the link to those tomes:

Chalcedon - Resources


Grace and peace,

David

The Failure of the American Baptist Culture and 89 other 'politically incorrect' books online for FREE!!!

In the combox of the An Enlightened Lecture - Lesley Hazleton: On reading the Koran thread, Ken Temple shared some of his personal views on the issue of the church and state (link). His comments brought back to mind a number of books I read back in the mid-late 80s and early 90s that delved deeply into this issue. Ken's Baptist worldview brought to the fore one book in particular, The Failure of the American Baptist Culture (edited by James Jordan, published 1982). A Google search revealed that this book is available online for free:

The Failure of the American Baptist Culture

But this is merely the 'tip-of-the-iceberg', for an additional 89 books (and 800+ issues of newsletters) on this and related topics are also available for FREE:

garynorth.com/freebooks/ ; I.C.E. FreeBooks

It is my hope that every Baptist and/or Evangelical in America, who takes the Bible seriously, will read The Failure of the American Baptist Culture, and follow this book up with Dr. Bahnsen's, By This Standard, and then Dr. North's, Political Polytheism—this trio of books provides a devastating critique of the Anabaptist/Baptist tradition that began back in the 16th century, and has come to dominant the mindset of American evangelicalism.


Grace and peace,

David