Tactics of Christian Resistance

Christianity & Civilization #3

by Gary North (Editor)

Book by

Genres: Theology, Nonfiction

528 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1983

About the author

Gary North received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside. He served on the Senior Staff of the Foundation for Economic Education, in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, and was the president of the Institute for Christian Economics. Dr. North’s essays and reviews have appeared in three dozen magazines and journals, including The Wall Street Journal, National Review, The American Spectator, and others.

Reviews

[Joshua Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some portions outdated due to the rapid change in technology, nevertheless there are many timeless tactics that are principally based. Many things here that are so relevant to our time today. Many things that need to be thought about, talked about, and dealt with that many Christians remain oblivious to. Gary North vindicated yet again.

[Scott Kennedy · Rating 3 out of 5]

As others point out, some of this is quite dated - and the means we have for resisting and getting our views out there are far superior. Nevertheless, some great essays.

This quote in the introduction drew me in.

Assume that you are a member of a Reformed church in the Netherlands. It is 1942. The Nazis who control your nation militarily have just announced a new policy requiring all Jews to come to the local city hall and register. The most prominent church leader in your denomination has recommended obedience to all “lawful” directives of the German authorities. He has not recommended disobeying this new directive, and you have no reason to believe that he will. Your denomination will not speak directly to this issue, and you think the civil authorities will threaten to shut down churches or in other ways pressure the church’s leadership to remain silent or even recommend compliance with the order. Then a Jew you know comes to you and asks for asylum. He wants you to hide him in your attic or barn. You know that this would be illegal. Will you hide him or turn him over to the Nazis?

I mean come on...the church and COVID anyone?

I found James Jordan's essay REBELLION, TYRANNY, AND DOMINION IN THE BOOK OF GENESIS very interesting. There was also an interesting and helpful section understanding and dealing with bureaucrats.

[Aurora Grace · Rating 1 out of 5]

Revealing his close ties to the early militia movement, North edits a volume of essays on tactics for resisting the American government when it threatens their privileges as Christians to essentially do whatever they want.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a symposium of essays and papers, published in 1983. Although now over 30 years old, many of the articles remain relevant and useful for Christians aware of and committed to the ongoing struggle between Christendom and humanism.

The first article, The Christian Manifesto of 1984, by the late the Rev. Dr. Francis Nigel Lee begins:
A specter is haunting the stage of world history -- the specter of consistent Christianity. All the powers of the world have entered into an unholy alliance to exorcise this specter. American pragmatists and European humanists and Red Chinese revolutionaries, Islam and Zionism, freethinkers, anti-intellectual pietists and incorrigible antinomians.
It is high time that consistent Christians should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, with a Manifesto of consistent Christians themselves.
To this end, consistent Christians of various nationalities have assembled together and sketched the following Manifesto.

A book to be referred to again and again, but never "read" in the sense that one might read say, a novel.

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good.