CR101 Radio - Podcast Network

Joseph didn't rise once and settle. He rose five times — from junior shepherd over four brothers, to his father's right hand, to chief of Potiphar's house, to ruler of Pharaoh's own prison, to second-in-command of all Egypt. Every single promotion cost him something — betrayal, slavery, false accusation — and every time he stayed faithful, God raised him higher. The pattern the Bible sets for its very first administrator is not survival. It is constant promotion to the apex of your God-given ability.

Modern society has separated morality from religion, treating ethics as a private preference rather than a public foundation. This shift reverses the original meaning of the First Amendment, which protected religious freedom so that faith could inform public morality not so morality could be excluded from public life.

All law rests on a moral order, and every moral order is rooted in religion. When morality is privatized, law becomes relativistic, leading to constitutional and social decay. A society that denies God’s sovereignty inevitably replaces it with state power, aesthetic judgment, or managerial control. True freedom and so...

When Paul stood before King Agrippa, he posed a piercing question: “Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?” (Acts 26:8). The king had no answer because the resurrection of Jesus Christ was no mere rumor. Over five hundred eyewitnesses had seen the risen Lord at one time alone (1 Cor. 15:6), and the early church proclaimed it with fearless certainty. Yet the Roman Empire could not accept it: for Rome, the highest power was Caesar, who could even deify men. To admit that a crucified Galilean had risen from the dead meant a grea...

R.J. Rushdoony and Otto Scott discuss modern society’s fear and denial of death, describing it as a cultural “pornography” and taboo. They contrast this with the Christian perspective, where death is accepted as part of life and a transition to eternal life, emphasizing the profound dignity and peace possible for believers even in dying.

They explore contemporary issues such as suicide, abortion, and euthanasia, linking them to a societal love of death and a rejection of maturity, responsibility, and God’s order. They also critique cultural trends like the obsession with perpetual youth, media distortions, and mora...

Things change relentlessly in this world: twelve presidents have come and gone since my birth, rivers where I once fished now look unrecognizable, familiar university landmarks have vanished, and even my own reflection tells a story of time’s steady work. Places I knew as a boy are transformed gold mines turned into wooded hills, bulldozed ridges smoothed out reminding us that nothing earthly endures. Yet amid every shift and upheaval, God’s salvation and grace stand utterly unchanged. He declares, “The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall...

In “Detente,” Rushdoony argues that the modern politics of compromise arise logically from humanism, a faith without absolutes in which nothing is ultimately worth living or dying for. In a world believed to be the product of chance, values are negotiable, law is fluid, and detente becomes a religious necessity rather than a moral failure. Biblical faith, by contrast, demands confrontation not reckless violence, but principled opposition rooted first in evangelism and conversion, and second in resistance to evil. Humanists cannot understand why Christians refuse compromise, because compromise is the only rational course in a meaningless universe. Yet this age...

Paul declares Jesus Christ “the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords” (1 Tim. 6:15) the Great King who stands behind every throne and every power in history. He permits men and nations to chase their evil dreams until those very dreams become their curse, sweeping away everything not built on the Rock. As Hebrews 12:27–29 warns, God is shaking the heavens and the earth so that only what cannot be shaken will remain. Crises, trials, and upheavals are not accidents; they come from the King to test and prove His people. We have no right to expect...

Fear often reveals itself in opposing ways toward change: some cling desperately to stability, resisting any alteration because their security rests in familiar arrangements, while others crave constant change, fleeing from place to place and experience to experience in order to avoid facing life and themselves. Though these attitudes appear opposite, they share the same root fear and both seek false security, either in preserving the old or in endless novelty. Scripture and history remind us that change does not alter man’s basic problem, which remains sin and the need for salvation in God through Jesus Christ. When we...

In this opening lecture on Neoplatonism and Christianity, the speaker contrasts biblical faith with a Greek, dialectical worldview that split spirit and matter and treated the body as the source of evil, a mindset that seeped into the early church and produced extreme ascetic “sainthood” marked by self-mortification, contempt for ordinary life, and spiritual pride. Through vivid historical examples, he argues that this is not Christianity at all: Scripture teaches that the whole man (body and soul) fell into sin and the whole man is redeemed in Christ, culminating in the resurrection of the body so the problem is not...

In the pagan cities of the Roman Empire where abortion, homosexuality, and state-sanctioned prostitution were not only tolerated but celebrated the early Christians were accused of treason: “These all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king, one Jesus” (Acts 17:7). They boldly proclaimed Jesus Christ as the true King of kings, God’s anointed Lord whose law stands above every human decree. By calling Him Messiah, they declared that every nation and every soul must bow to Him or face destruction, just as Isaiah 60:12 warned: “The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish.”...

History is made by people, not abstract “social forces”; men and women of faith and action shape events, drive progress, and give purpose to civilizations, while the modern notion that vague forces dictate outcomes undermines human responsibility, freedom, and the Biblical understanding of man as God’s active creation. #HistoryMakers #FaithAndAction #HumanResponsibility #BiblicalWorldview #FreedomOfAction

In “Selling Out Christ,” Rushdoony warns that modern churches risk betraying Christ by surrendering their independence to the state through licensure, regulation, and especially voucher schemes for Christian schools. The early church rejected all state control because Christ alone is King, and Christian freedom—including tax exemption—was won through costly resistance, not compromise. Voucher programs, he argues, inevitably bring state control, function as a form of socialism, and are a strategic payoff to neutralize the growing Christian school movement. By accepting state money, churches exchange lordship for convenience, repeating Judas’s betrayal in a modern form. True Christian institutio...

When the shadows of evening fall when darkness seems to swallow the world, when history appears locked in a downward spiral of sin, disaster, and despair God declares a different reality. Zechariah 14:7 promises a day “not day, nor night,” when “at evening time it shall be light.” What nature calls the end of day, the Lord turns into a miracle of sudden illumination. The Creator who governs history, not nature, repeatedly reverses the expected decline: in the darkest hours, He brings forth light, regenerates hearts, redirects nations, and fulfills His sovereign purposes. Though sin daily deepens the gloom around us, the...

In this Q&A, Rushdoony and Foster argue that “third world” crises are tragic yet often compounded by sinful leadership, war, and anti-Christian barriers that fear the Gospel’s implications for government under Christ; Christians should provide real relief where doors open (they cite Somalia as an example of staggering human cost) while insisting the long-term cure is changed character through the Gospel and the rebuilding of self-government, enterprise, and productivity—undermined, they say, by Marxism and “liberation theology.” They warn that anti-mission propaganda (including a story about hostile anthropologists and the murder of missionary Chet Bitterman) fuels persecution and implicat...

Slavery has marked every culture and era, taking many forms and affecting all peoples. While private slavery is widely condemned today, modern societies increasingly practice state slavery through expanding bureaucratic control, regulation, and dependency over citizens.

True freedom, Scripture teaches, is not political but spiritual. Slavery begins with bondage to sin, and only Christ can make men truly free. Where Christian faith declines, slavery old or new inevitably returns, and societies drift toward control, conformity, and loss of liberty.

"Sorry, I've been busy" may be the most socially acceptable lie in modern culture. But what if the constant refrain of busyness is not a sign of productivity but a mask for misplaced priorities, avoidance of duty, and even disobedience to God? In this episode of Out of the Question, Andrea Schwartz and Pastor Charles Roberts examine the culture of busyness through the lens of biblical law and ask whether Christians have absorbed a humanistic standard for how they spend their time.

Drawing on key passages — Martha's distraction in Luke 10, the excuses of the in...

The Apostles’ Creed boldly declares the personal faith of every believer: “I believe… in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary.” This Virgin Birth is no mere detail it is the miracle of a new creation. In Christ, the second Adam, God begins a new humanity, free from the sin and death inherited from the first Adam, born instead to righteousness and everlasting life. While the world pins its hopes for a better age on politics, education, science, or social reform hoping to remake man by remaking his envi...

The fear of man is one of the most common and enslaving fears, revealing itself in anxiety over public opinion, social standing, and exposure, even more than concern for God or conscience. When people dread what others might think more than what God declares, they show that man not God has become their object of worship, for what a person worships is what he most fears to offend. Such fear demands constant conformity to shifting social standards and makes communion with human approval more vital than obedience to God. Scripture warns that this fear of man is a snare...

We all wonder and often fear what the future holds: aging, disappointments, pain, and the shadow of death seem to loom large, while the world around us appears to unravel. Yet Scripture offers a far greater certainty than our anxious guesses. Paul declares in Romans 8:28 that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Even when we cannot know what tomorrow will bring, we know Who is bringing it the sovereign Lord who rules over heaven and earth, and who cannot be stopped or questioned (Dan. 4:35). The...

The apostles declared that we are living in the “last days” the intense era that began with Christ’s first coming and will end with His return. In these “latter times,” Paul warned, many will depart from the faith, seduced by demonic doctrines, becoming “fierce, despisers of those that are good,” trucebreakers, and lovers of every evil (1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Tim. 3:1–3). The result is not mere difficulty but “perilous times” literally ferocious times when civilization itself clothes malice and hatred of righteousness in polished forms. The civilized barbarian has emerged, breaking treaties, despising truth, and unleashing open war against Christ and His people. Yet Paul...

He emphasizes that morality and life are inseparable: without faith and a commitment to God, ethical principles erode, leaving society vulnerable. Only a vigorous, pro-life Christian faith, grounded in action and obedience to God, can restore vitality and counter the pervasive cultural drift toward death, immorality, and decay.

The pursuit of a risk-free life is a dangerous illusion. Without risk, there can be no victory, responsibility, growth, or freedom. Attempts to eliminate risk always destroy liberty and replace it with control, dependency, and tyranny while creating far greater dangers in the process.

Freedom necessarily involves moral risk, accountability, and consequences. To deny risk is to deny justice, causality, and ultimately God’s moral order. A society that fears risk abandons discipline, courage, and responsibility and inevitably trades the risks of freedom for the far worse risks of slavery.

In 1139, the Lateran Council condemned the crossbow as too deadly for Christian warriors, yet the weapon soon became a standard of warfare because yesterday’s fears rarely stop tomorrow’s progress. The same fear of change that paralyzed men then still cripples many today, making us shrink from the blessings and challenges God has prepared for the future. Yet Scripture promises that “all things work together for good to them that love God” (Romans 8:28). When we trust the sovereign Lord who ordains every tomorrow, we need not dread what lies ahead each day, no matter how difficult, serves His holy pur...

In “The New War on Religion,” Rushdoony argues that the conflict over Christian schools is not about educational quality but about religious control, marking an open war between humanism and Christianity. State schools, he contends, function as religious institutions teaching secular humanism the faith of man as his own god while accreditation and “minimum standards” are tools to impose a single, humanistic culture and suppress Biblical conviction. The Ohio battles revealed that education is inescapably religious, neutrality is a myth, and state control seeks conformity, not excellence. Courts, Rushdoony notes, increasingly recognize this as a clash of faiths, protecting Christia...

In the Bible, every new month and every new year was a festival, a holy day consecrated to God, not to nature or human schemes. While pagans marked time by the sun and seasons, the Hebrews celebrated time as God’s sovereign gift, numbering years from creation, months from His deliverance, and days from His faithfulness. The Christian calendar continues this tradition: we date our history Anno Domini, “in the year of our Lord,” because time belongs to Jesus Christ, not to revolutions or five-year plans. The French and Russian Revolutions tried to seize control of time, only to fail m...

Fear inevitably betrays itself, and one of its most common disguises is flight, whether in Cain’s literal running from God or in the more sophisticated evasions of those who loudly denounce doctors, psychiatrists, churches, or ministers as a way of avoiding confrontation with their own sickness, guilt, and fear. Such sweeping condemnations are not honest convictions but smokescreens, masking a deeper terror of life, death, and ultimately of God Himself, whose truth they resent because it exposes what they would rather not face. As long as man lives apart from God, fear dogs his steps and no false re...

Rushdoony thunders: Gospel (evangelion) Roman imperial ""good news"" of Caesar's victory stolen & fulfilled in Christ!True Emperor: Jesus King of kings, Lord of lords total dominion!Preaching: Royal proclamation Law-Word binding all spheres.No compromise: Humanism's fiat salvation exposed state god, cradle-grave ""security.""Biblical: Dominion mandate + Great Commission conquer nations, every area!Christ's victory church army marches!Timeless challenge proclaim total Lordship!Powerful imperial theology Kingdom advances! #GospelVictory #ChristKing #BiblicalDominion #Rushdoony

We can soar across oceans or even touch the moon, yet no one can leap over time neither backward to relive childhood nor forward to escape today’s trials. Longing for peaceful yesterdays or a trouble-free tomorrow is futile, for God gives us time one moment at a time, in perfect sequence, as both a test and an opportunity. Time is our life’s true wealth: it cannot be hoarded, traded, or skipped. Moses prayed, “Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Psalm 90:12), and Paul urged us to redeem the time in these ev...

In “Humanism and Christ’s Kingdom,” Rushdoony argues that modern humanistic statism is waging a covert but aggressive war against Christ’s Kingdom by redefining freedom as state permission and justice as mere legality, using regulation, licensure, taxation, and “public policy” to control churches, Christian schools, families, and even parental instruction. Under the guise of civil rights and humanitarian concern, the state asserts sovereignty over education, faith, and morality—claims Rushdoony identifies as a revival of ancient Baalism and modern fascism, where the state becomes god walking on earth. This assault is intensified not only by statist elites but also by coward...

Concerns about “book banning” in U.S. schools are often misrepresented; parents may object to certain books for moral or educational reasons, while libraries promote works aligned with humanistic perspectives, but true censorship prohibiting publication altogether does not exist here; freedom means the right to choose, and defending that choice requires respecting others’ freedom to make their own selections. #FreedomOfChoice #Education #ParentalRights #IntellectualFreedom #BookSelection

Rushdoony opens by reframing “evangelism” as evangelion—the imperial-era “good news of victory” that demanded life be reordered around the enthroned ruler—and argues the New Testament deliberately seizes Rome’s imperial vocabulary to proclaim a counter-empire: the true “beginning of everything” is not Caesar but Jesus Christ, so the Gospel is inherently a public, world-ordering declaration that challenges every statist claim (“Caesar is Lord” vs. “Jesus is Lord,” “King of kings”). He ties this to the Great Commission and dominion mandate: Christians are not a neutral “Red Cross” on history’s sidelines but an army under Christ’s kingship summoned to bring persons, na...

Guilt is one of the strongest tools of control. Guilty people are fearful, easily manipulated, and prone to slavery whether to the state, other people, or destructive habits. History shows that regimes thrive on guilt because it weakens resistance and paralyzes conscience.

Only Christ deals with guilt at its root. Psychology teaches men to live with guilt; Scripture declares that guilt requires atonement and only Jesus Christ can provide it. Without His atoning work, guilt enslaves; with it, men are truly free. A people freed from guilt are not easily ruled, for “if the Son therefore shall ma...

In a world where violent marches claim the name of peace, and cities burn while crowds scramble for gold instead of guarding it, true peace remains impossible without righteousness. A hundred years ago, honor held society together; today, the loss of Christian character breeds chaos and insecurity. The Bible declares that only the Prince of Peace Jesus Christ can transform corrupt hearts and bring lasting order, justice, and joy. As Isaiah prophesied, His peace shall have no end. This Christmas, amid the clamor for counterfeit peace, return to the Savior born to save us from our astray ways. O...

Ever wonder why some people seem to attract the resources, favor, and open doors they need — while others grind away and get nowhere? In this first episode of a brand-new series on work, we dig into Ezra 7, where an ordinary administrator walked up to the most powerful ruler on earth and was handed everything he asked for: silver, gold, authority, safe passage — a blank check. The reason wasn't luck or royal connections. It was one repeatable, three-step habit hidden in a single verse most people read straight past. Whether you're a welder, a teacher, a gas engineer, or running a co...

Can conservatism — even sincere, well-intentioned social conservatism — actually conserve anything if it is severed from Christ? That is the provocative question at the heart of this episode of Out of the Question, as Andrea Schwartz welcomes Mike Groenewold, a writer and board member of Freedom Defence Canada, who has been deeply shaped by the writings of R.J. Rushdoony and the tradition of Christian Reconstruction.

Mike traces his journey from a Dutch-immigrant Christian Reformed upbringing in western Canada, through years of missionary work and vocational restlessness, to a transformative encounter with the biblical world-and-life view...

In a world where violent marches claim the name of peace, and cities burn while crowds scramble for gold instead of guarding it, true peace remains impossible without righteousness. A hundred years ago, honor held society together; today, the loss of Christian character breeds chaos and insecurity. The Bible declares that only the Prince of Peace Jesus Christ can transform corrupt hearts and bring lasting order, justice, and joy. As Isaiah prophesied, His peace shall have no end. This Christmas, amid the clamor for counterfeit peace, return to the Savior born to save us from our astray ways. O...

Although modern life is outwardly more secure than most past ages, men paradoxically display both a fascination with violence and an intense fear of it, feeding their imaginations on violent entertainment while living in constant dread of disaster and attack. This contradiction reveals a deeper problem: the fear of violence springs from guilt before God, just as Cain feared every man’s hand because he knew he stood condemned. Haunted by this guilt, men both fear violence and unconsciously invite it, leaving doors open to danger as if hoping their suffering might atone for their sin. But no human su...

Times, tastes, and customs change but the church remains alive only by the one thing that never does: the Word of God. Hymns, forms, and preferences may differ from generation to generation, yet believers across centuries recognize one another by their shared submission to Scripture. When the Bible is treated as absolute truth, the church is timeless; when it is denied, what remains is only a counterfeit. Real progress isn’t chasing change it’s applying God’s unchanging truth to changing times. The church doesn’t need to reinvent itself; it needs to reclaim the Word.

Finally, they stress that modern society has lost independence, self-reliance, and a moral grounding in God. Scott and Rushdoony warn that relying on politics, economics, or rationalistic theories without ethical and spiritual foundation has led to diminished freedom, societal decline, and economic vulnerability. They conclude that reassessing assumptions and restoring moral, cultural, and practical independence is essential for future survival.

What we give to God has a way of coming back to us. A man who cut corners on a house meant as a retirement gift ended up living in the very mess he built a living picture of a biblical truth: we eat our own offerings. Scripture required that gifts to God be the best, because much of what was offered returned to the giver. When people give God only leftovers time, money, care, or obedience they eventually live with the results. God is not mocked: what we sow, we reap. The question is sobering are we offering...