Liberty and Founding Principles
We Still Hold These Truths, by Matthew Spalding.
This book presents an easy to read argument for a reverence for America’s first principles. Spalding also lays out how the pernicious scheme of Progressivism has eroded the foundations on the proper American understanding of the role of government. Although his call to an “American Renewal” is needed, he fails to completely connect the need for an American revival. An “American Renewal” can only come on the tail end of an American revival.
Only after a spiritual awakening will America find her soul again. America needs to return to a right fear of the LORD and yield to his sovereignty. Those who enjoy comfort and vice more than liberty are incapable of recognizing and opposing tyrants. Only in surrendering to the Giver of liberty will we be free to enjoy the blessings of liberty.
You can purchase We Still Hold These Truths as a book or use as a home group study. The more people who understand where we’ve been, the more likely we will know where we are going.
Philosophy/Apologetics
Deliver Us From Evil: Restoring the Soul in a Disintegrating Culture, by Ravi Zacharias.
Ravi Zacharias is a first-rate mind. He makes a compelling argument how secularism and pluralism have led to the death of shame and reason. Today’s moral relativism tries to obfuscate right and wrong by denying the existence of absolutes or our ability to discover and know absolute truth. “In contrast, relativism in ethics denounces absolutes and erects an indefensible system that leaves all morality at the mercy of individual whim. Relativism is, therefore, only another word for anarchy, and that is why truth itself becomes elusive when there is no longer a point of reference.”
A Christian Manifesto, by Francis A. Schaeffer.
Francis Schaeffer capably exposed the lie that liberal theology is simply another interpretation of Scripture. He battled secular humanists throughout his entire life. In A Christian Manifesto, Schaeffer unequivocally compares liberal theology with secular humanism. “[W]hat their liberal theology is is humanism in theological terms….” No matter what issue you present to the liberal theologian, he will inevitably side with the secular humanist. Whether it be abortion, same-sex “marriage,” social welfare, the environment, support for Israel, the liberal theologian and secular humanist stand arm-in-arm. It truly is a shame the late Francis A. Schaeffer’s son finds himself aligned with the secular humanists. See “Franky Goes to Hollywood.”
Orthodoxy, by G.K. Chesterton.
This work by Chesterton is a timeless classic for deep Christian thinkers. “What a man can believe depends upon his philosophy, not upon the clock or century.” You will need a dictionary and an understanding of turn-of-the-century British history. The particular edition I read has helpful footnotes to put Chesterton’s references into context. Some of his examples and references are dated but orthodoxy stands throughout the ages. In reading Orthodoxy, you will be amazed how the insane philosophies, materialism (naturalism), nihilism, secular humanism, etc., of Chesterton’s day still plague us today. “The man who cannot believe his senses, and the man who cannot believe anything else, are both insane.”
