Tag Archives: Gary North

Pat Robertson: A Christian Action Plan for the 1980s (and NOW)

America, Christian Reconstruction, Cultural Mandate, Gary North, ,
Photo credit: Paparazzo Photography (2006)

In 1979, Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson published what he called an “Action Plan for the 1980s.” It really was a detailed ‘call to action’ for Christians. It laid out in brief five fundamental economic, social and political problems that we faced as Americans and especially as Bible-believing Christians back then.

I regret to inform you that, with but one exception, those problems are still with us!

Some of the historical details set forth by Robertson have changed, of course — the fall of the Soviet Union on Christmas Day 1991 being the greatest example of these (hence, communism is no longer on the rise) — and certainly the dollar figures being discussed with regard to currency devaluation and federal government spending per capita have dramatically changed. (He laments that in 1979, it was $2,445 for every man, woman and child. Well, now that figure, adjusted for inflation, is up to $19,434!

As for currency devaluation with respect to the price of gold in 1979, Robertson remarks how the price had shot up to $380 per ounce in seven short years from $42 in 1972, when Nixon used his executive powers to finish what FDR started in 1933. Imagine what his astonishment must have been when he saw gold prices soaring past $1,900 (again) before his death in June 2023!

Anyway, I suppose we should be thankful that after a little more than four decades now, we are only faced with solving four of the five “Critical Problems America Must Face” that he called attention to.

One down. Four to go.

Here are the four remaining CRITICAL PROBLEMS:

  • Inflation
  • Currency Devaluation
  • Productivity
  • Government

Guess which two you and I have some actual ability to effect change in?

You got it!

Well, Rev. Robertson (he was an ordained Southern Baptist minister) did not just state the problems without also offering targeted solutions for them.

By targeted, I mean those whom he says should be the ones implementing these.

Let me give you a hint as to who that should be…

6 STEPS TO MORAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL RECOVERY

Let me give you another hint… Actually, let me give you six of them:

  1. There must be a profound moral revival in the land.
  2. Those who love God must get involved in the election of strong leaders.
  3. In a moral sense, we must recognize our right to preserve our precious religious heritage.
  4. Christians must take action in education.
  5. Christians must become aware of the awesome power of the media to mold our moral and political consensus.
  6. Christians should seek positions of leadership in major corporations and benevolent foundations.

Get the hints?

These are more than “hints.” They are blueprints. Proposed blueprints for a major project of … wait for it … Christian reconstruction.

Or, as he calls it, a “plan of action.”

And what does Robertson say are the keys to our success in this critical undertaking?

FAITH and DILIGENCE

After all, he reminds us, how did the Communists, espousing a false religion, manage to dominate so much of the world in 60 short years?

They were dedicated to their cause, and they worked at it.

That, by the way, is another hint.

In so many words, he is saying, “Go, and do thou likewise.”

And lest we be disheartened by the daunting scope of this most intimidating task at hand, Rev. Robertson also reminds us,

“The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.”

Rev. 11:15

Dr. Gary North reprinted Pat Robertson’s Christian Action Plan for the 1980s in the Dec. 1979/Jan. 1980 issue of his ICE (Institute for Christian Economics) newsletter, “Biblical Economics Today.”

I am reprinting it here in its entirety as it was originally published by Dr. North in print in 1979, and online on his website in 2014.

I strongly encourage you to read this action plan carefully, take it to heart, pray about it, and consider looking at ways you can begin to implement some of its long-term strategy.

And it is a long-term strategy.

As Rev. Robertson says,

Except for our Lord’s return, we cannot expect our nation or our world to be freed from tyranny in one year or even 10 years. But if we are faithful and diligent, with His blessing, it will be done.

As a postmillennialist filled with certainty and hope for the future of our nation and of our world, I say, Amen to that.

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Retrospective: A Christian Action Plan For The 1980’s

Pat Robertson

October, 1979 marks the 50th anniversary of the Great Depression of 1929–an event which did more to shape the existing framework of U.S. government policy than any other single event in recent history. Out of the Depression came a powerful central government; an imperial presidency; the enormous political power of newspapers, radio, and later television; an anti-business bias in the country, powerful unions; a complexity of federal regulations and agencies designed to control and, in many instances, protect powerful vested interests; and, more importantly, the belief in the economic policy of British scholar John Maynard Keynes, to the end that government spending and government “fine tuning” would guarantee perpetual prosperity.

New Deal Keynesian policies did reverse the economic tragedy of the Depression (with the help of World War II). But many now feel that the “cure” of the ’30’s is the cause of the sickness of the ’70’s. In fact, many knowledgeable observers are contending that forces unleashed in the post-Depression days have so weakened Western civilization, and the United States in particular, that a radical change is on the way. Some feel that 1979 may be the watershed year for the Western nations as we now know them.

5 CRITICAL PROBLEMS AMERICA MUST FACE NOW

As we enter the next decade, here are some of the inherited problems which must be dealt with:

(1) Inflation.

Deficit spending by the federal government, which seemed so appropriate in the Depression and later during World War II, has seized us like a massive narcotic addiction. Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter could not resist the temptation of the “quick fix.” For 10 years the economy has been on the same cycle: spending, election, monetary contraction, recession, spending, election, etc. During this time the government has printed vast sums of money, thus ensuring both economic turmoil and the consequent rise in prices. As a result the savings of the thrifty have been cut in half, many of the elderly have been beggared, and the Social Security system is approaching bankruptcy. Reckless borrowers gain and the cautious lose. Public and private debt has risen into the trillions. Government has grown so that the load of non-productive governmental interference in the life of every citizen has become insupportable.

(2) Currency devaluation.

As a Depression measure, President Roosevelt took us off the gold standard and made private ownership of gold illegal. President Nixon completed the action when he removed all monetary backing to the dollar and let it float against all other currencies of the world. When Nixon made his move in 1972, the price of gold was $42 per ounce. In September, 1979, the world price of gold topped $380 per ounce and undoubtedly it will go higher. It could also be said that gold as a commodity has gone up in price in seven years. It could also be said that the world now regards the U.S. dollar as worth 1/9 of its 1972 value!

Indeed, in 1919 the dollar is regarded as only about half as valuable against the German merit, the Swiss franc, and the Japanese yen as it was in 1972.

During the last century, the British pound sterling was the reserve currency of the world. It was backed by gold, which was in turn backed by a stable, prosperous empire. In the 1920’s Britain removed the backing from its currency. Consequently, one cause of the U.S. Depression was wild speculation brought on by artificially low interest rates in this country, which our Federal Reserve Board permitted in order to protect the then-weak British pound. When the pound fell as a reserve currency, it was every nation for itself. A wave of protective tariffs set in, turning a financial crash into a worldwide disaster.

After World War II, the U.S. dollar became the reserve currency of the world. The dollar was “as good as gold,” and became for other nations a store of value. The policies of the Johnson, Nixon, and Carter administrations have deliberately destroyed the value of the dollar. Now, instead of currency convertibility and free trade, it becomes again every nation for itself. How do nations protect their dollar reserves, dump unwanted dollars, and protect their own currencies? Once again there is talk of trade wars, tariffs, and other protectionist devices.

Further complicating international finance is the OPEC oil cartel. Oil is priced in terms of dollars. U.S. inflation causes the dollar to drop in value. Whenever this happens, OPEC raises the price of oil to compensate. This causes further in?ation and further dollar decline–then another round of a vicious cycle from which we seem unable or unwilling to extricate ourselves.

(3) Productivity.

The Depression caused market demand to plummet. Prices crashed along with the stock market. Farm surpluses caused untold misery in America’s breadbasket. The New Deal answer was to limit production and competition, kill the little pigs, take acreage out of cultivation, and then stimulate demand by massive government spending. In the ’30’s, it worked.

Now in the ’70’s, a bewildering array of New Deal legislation, coupled with the Great Society programs of Lyndon Johnson, coupled with rigid environmental regulations, has helped shrink U.S. productivity to record lows.

More serious is the liquidation of our major industries enforced by in?ation. Here is how it works. A business desires to show profits to its lenders and stockholders. In order to do this, it allows its capital plan to be depreciated at what it cost 10 or 15 years ago, rather than what it would cost now or in the future. If replacement value depreciation were used, many “profitable” businesses would show substantial losses. Their book “profits” are illusory; nevertheless the businesses pay taxes and dividends on them.

Unfortunately, when replacement time comes, the available funds are vastly inadequate to buy modern equipment and factories. So the business, as in the case of United States Steel Corp., closes the old plants and shrinks its output.

Unless something is done very soon by government, big business, and the financial community to recognize the realities of inflation and to make provision for the enormous sums required to modernize our heavy industry, in the 1980’s we will discover that our steel, machinery, and automotive industries have shrunk to the point where they can no longer compete at home or overseas.

As industries close, the government is forced into additional inflationary spending to care for displaced workers. As productivity drops and government spending accelerates, the pace of inflation speeds up–which in turn further aggravates the plight of industry, which causes a further increase in our trade deficit, causing the dollar to decline again. Dollar decline means we pay more for imported goods and thereby have more domestic inflation.

The cause-and-effect cycle of inflation and industry decline is relatively easy to follow. It is also easy to understand why the “new breed” of economic conservatives is stressing anti-Keynesian policies of stimulating production and supply while balancing the federal budget to cool the ruinously inflationary demand side of the economic equation.

(4) Government.

Until the Depression, the federal government operated largely in keeping with the philosophy attributed to Thomas Jefferson: “That government is best which governs least.”

The anguish of the Depression changed all that. Emergency legislation proposed by President Roosevelt was railroaded through Congress with scarcely a murmur of objection. The Supreme Court objected on the grounds that the Constitution never gave the federal government such power over individual citizens, nor could Congress delegate so much of its authority to the chief executive.

How, for example, could the federal government under our Constitution force a farmer in Iowa to limit his planting of corn and make him kill his little pigs? The Supreme Court struck down item after item of New Deal legislation as unconstitutional. But in effect, Roosevelt said: Either approve my laws and regulations, or I will get Congress to expand the number of justices on the Court and then I will “pack” it with people who will do what I want.

This was dictatorship–but Roosevelt had the votes in Congress, so the Court backed down. They suddenly discovered that the little pigs in Iowa were a factor in “interstate commerce.” Since the federal government had constitutional authority to regulate “commerce,” it could limit the output of little pigs in Iowa if it wanted to. And it could, in decades to come, control how many channels were on TV sets, who could eat in a restaurant, the working conditions in every business, how many acres a farmer could plant, what wages would be paid to whom. Once the dam was broken, it became hard to conceive of many human endeavors outside of the reach of the federal government.

In fact, under activist presidents, Courts and Congresses, the Commerce Clause and the 14th Amendment have become the vehicles whereby government and its regulations have become the dominant factor in our society today. Federal spending amounts to $2,445 this year for every man, woman, and child in the land, and government debt amounts to $3,998 for each. The load on the family of four will be $9,780 in federal spending this fiscal year, and $15,992 in long-term debt, not including Social Security, Civil Service, and other retirement obligations plus collateral guarantees of federal agencies.

(5) Rise of Communism.

The Depression idled nearly one of every four workers in America. Businesses failed, banks collapsed, farmers and home owners were evicted from their property, and the life savings of millions vanished. Financial losses triggered the more serious loss or human dignity and purpose.

With the misery came revelations of abuses and scandals, stock manipulations by leading banks, blatant greed and corruption on the part of some of the most respected financial leaders of the day, and massive deception by Wall Street and government leaders.

Sensitive young intellectuals–men like Alger Hiss–became convinced that our system was wrong. Longing for a utopian society to replace it, they became easy targets for the Communist party and Communist fronts throughout the country. Many of these men and women played a key policy role in education, journalism, religion, labor, foundations, business, and government. They forced a pro-Soviet tilt to U.S. government policy during World War II and in the postwar years.

It is fair to say that the United States created a world favorable to the growth of the Soviet Union and world communism. We gave them money, technology, and trade agreements. We allowed them to subjugate Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Rumania, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Albania, and Manchuria. We permitted a divided Germany and a split Berlin. We established a United Nations charter drafted by Alger Hiss, a reputed Communist party member, which guaranteed the Soviets a veto in the United Nations Security Council.

Our postwar international monetary policy was largely the creation oi Harry Dexter White, another reputed Communist party member. And pro-Communist spies in both the United States and Great Britain gave the Soviets access to virtually all of our highly classified nuclear and defense secrets.

Before the Depression, the Bolsheviks were a slightly ludicrous group of fanatics who held dictatorial power in a poverty-stricken land that was still a part of the Middle Ages. Fifty years later, with our help, they have subjugated one quarter of all the people on earth, and have amassed a war machine that is not equal to but vastly superior to the military capability of the United States and its NATO allies combined.

By1981, the Soviet Union will have such undisputed dominance over the United States that it will be able to move at will against any territory on earth.

This would never have been possible had it not been for the Depression-inspired flirtation with Marxism on the part of the U.S. intellectual community–which, unfortunately, in some quarters still continues to this day.

6 STEPS TO MORAL, POLITICAL, AND ECONOMIC RECOVERY

As 1979 draws to a close, we are left with a 50-year legacy which should cause alarm. Our domestic strength has been weakened by government excesses and mismanagement; our capacity for national sacrifice and resolute action may have been reduced to a level of ineffectiveness; vital raw materials necessary to our economic and military survival are in the hands of others; and we are confronted by a powerful adversary with both the capability and the desire to destroy us.

We urgently need two things. First, that God will hold our external enemies at bay while confusing their counsels against us. Second, we need a bold, dynamic plan baled on practical reality which will permit our nation to turn around and begin the slow road to moral, political, and economic recovery.

A national strategy for the ’80’s must be formulated. Each individual needs a similar plan. Here are some suggestions intended to stimulate thought.

(1) There must be a profound moral revival in the land.

Not only increased evangelism; not a glib confession of faith, but a profound commitment to Jesus Christ and biblical Christianity. There must be true repentance, fasting, prayer, and calling upon God. The “people who are called by His name” need to beseech God with all humility on behalf of our nation and our world. A miracle is needed and we must ask for one.

(2) Those who love God must get involved in the election of strong leaders.

Men and women of God across the land must join together to ensure the election of strong leaders who are beholden to no special interest group; who are pledged to reduce the size of government, eliminate federal deficits, free our productive capacity, ensure sound currency; who are pledged to strong national defense, and do not confuse peace with surrender; who recognize the anti-Christ nature oi Marxism and will refuse to permit innocent people to fail victim to Marxist tyranny; who support programs which encourage godliness while resisting programs which result in the triumph of humanism and atheism in our land.

More than anything we need leaders who are not afraid to demand necessary sacrifices of our people in order to free us from bondage–whether it comes from the OPEC cartel, from crushing debt, from nuclear blackmail, or from the poverty and helplessness oi a portion of our people.

To accomplish this takes work. Christians must register to vote, work within parties, attend caucuses, mass meetings, and conventions. They need to be informed on Issues and know what each candidate stands for. They must be willing to hold public office and, where appropriate, should prepare for government service. They must be willing to write letters, make telephone calls, lobby for legislation, and pray for their leaders. In short, they must be good citizens. In the Book of Proverbs we read, “The diligent will bear rule, but the slothful will be put to forced labor.” If Christians want to rule, they must be diligent. There is no magic shortcut.

(3) In a moral sense, we must recognize our right to preserve our precious religious heritage.

Supreme Court decisions are not holy writ. The damage to our spiritual and moral heritage that has been brought on by the Supreme Court school prayer decisions is beyond calculation. President Roosevelt did not hesitate to use power to force the Supreme Court to acquiesce to New Deal legislation. Christians should not hesitate to use the lawful power at their disposal to secure reversal of onerous Supreme Court decisions.

(4) Christians must take action in education.

The courts and ill-advised federal regulations have often made a mockery of education. Eliminating prayer removed moral restraints; busing tends to remove neighborhood restraints. Many schools have become undisciplined jungles.

Textbooks used in public schools often tend to destroy long-established moral values. Parents have every right to insist on quality moral education for their children. They should fight for it In public schools, and If good public education is denied them, they must do everything possible to establish an alternative private system of education where Christian values can be taught.

(5) Christians must become aware of the awesome power of the media to mold our moral and political consensus.

Christians need to do everything in their power to get involved in media (radio, television, newspapers, magazines). Where possible, Christians should seek to establish or purchase newspapers, magazines, radio stations, and television stations.

Christians should learn motion picture techniques, produce drama, write music, publish books–anything to produce a climate of righteousness and godliness. They must dispel the sense of nihilism and lack of meaning that is so evident in much that passes for art these days.

(6) Christians should seek positions of leadership in major corporations and benevolent foundations.

It has been said that money is the “mother’s milk” of politics. It also is the essential nourishment of education, entrance into media, the arts, and wide-scale evangelism. Christians should learn the ways of finance: stocks, bonds, banking, commodities, real estate, taxes. More than anything, they should learn and apply the principles of God’s kingdom dealing with the acquisition and use of wealth. When they have accumulated material resources, they should recognize the enormous good they can accomplish with that wealth in unity with other members of the body of Christ throughout the world.

THE KEYS TO SUCCESS: FAITH AND DILIGENCE

The Communists, who espouse a false religion, now dominate the world after only 60 years. The reason is simple–they were dedicated to their cause and they worked at it. Except for our Lord’s return, we cannot expect our nation or our world to be treed from tyranny in one year or even 10 years. But if we are faithful and diligent, with His blessing, it will be done. “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.” (Rev. 11:15)

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Read this article as published on Gary North’s website by clicking here.

Read a PDF of the original ICE newsletter by clicking here.

Now, let’s get busy!

Dr. Gary North: A Giant Has Departed, R.I.P.*

Christian Reconstruction, Gary North

At least he lived long enough to celebrate his 80th birthday.

At least he lived long enough to celebrate his 50th wedding anniversary with his wife Sharon.

At least he was able to fulfill his vow and complete his life’s work–and then some–before he died.

But the sad, harsh reality is… last Thursday, February 24th, he died.

I am going to miss him. I already do. So do a lot of people. His departure has left an intellectual and theological void that no other living person can fill. Plain and simple.

Dr. Gary North, Ph.D. has exited the planet.

But only temporarily.

His eschatology says he’ll back at a later date for an extended stay once the renovations are completed.

That may take a couple of thousand years, give or take.

Meantime, the good doctor (History, University of California, Riverside) left us with a literary and spiritual legacy that could and should fill a library: his Bible commentaries, books, articles, videos, homeschool courses on economics, history, government, literature. His vision for an online Christian curriculum.

All of this comprises our vast, rich inheritance.

Of course, being the academic that he was, this also means that he left us with a lot of homework.

Lots to read. Lots to learn. Lots to do. With an emphasis on do.

His stern, grandfatherly advice: “Get busy!”

An Obituary Like No Other

If you have not already read it, here is Craig Bulkeley’s excellent article that he wrote. It was posted on the front page of Gary North’s website yesterday. I think you should read it.

https://www.garynorth.com/public/23334.cfm

Since there will come a day when that page will no longer be available online (my expectation is that WordPress will outlast Membergate), I repost it here in its entirety.

Before you read it, I want to propose an alternate meaning to the customary initials, R.I.P.

Especially in Dr. North’s case…

From now on, “R.I.P.” shall mean:

*Reconstruction In Progress*

Prayers for consolation in the LORD to the family of Dr. North. God bless and be with you.

Gary North, RIP

Craig Bulkeley – February 26, 2022

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-mind 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.

The Formative Years

North was born in 1942 to Peggy North, a homemaker, and Sam W. North, a World War II veteran and FBI Special Agent. In the idyllic “American Graffiti” era of 1950’s southern California, he excelled in high school and developed skills in research, writing, public speaking, and photography. He served as president of the school’s California Scholarship Federation chapter and was elected to the statewide office of “Superintendent of Public Instruction” at California’s prestigious Boys State. In his senior year he was elected president of the student body of 2000 students. He also learned business and music working at the local record store. Under his father’s influence, he developed a healthy sense of discipline and responsibility that he carried throughout life. North’s experiences in his youth helped develop in him a sense of self-confidence. At the age of 18 he came to faith in Jesus Christ which led him at the age of 21 to devote his career to the development of biblical economics.

While a student at the University of California, Riverside, North became increasingly more aware of the essential connection between various social and academic ideologies and their foundational philosophical and theological principles. In the spring of 1962 he read R. J. Rushdoony’s Intellectual Schizophrenia: Culture, Crisis, and Education (1961). It was a penetrating critique of public education and a systematic dismantling of the notion of academic neutrality. After corresponding they later met at an academic conference where Rushdoony was teaching on economics. The following year Rushdoony hired him as a summer intern with the newly formed Center for American Studies. North lived that summer and the next with the Rushdoony family. His job, for a good salary, was to read full-time. He read Murray Rothbard’s Man, Economy, and State (Fall 1962), The Panic of 1819 (1962), and America’s Great Depression (Spring 1963). He learned the monetary and free market theory of Ludwig von Mises and Austrian economics. He also attended a conference that year where Mises was teaching.

Having completed his undergraduate work in history North did a year of graduate work at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia. There he studied under Cornelius Van Til, the godfather of anti-neutrality. Rushdoony had shaped his books on education from Van Til’s early essays on education.

North returned to UCLA in the fall of 1964 but within a month became disillusioned with the prevailing Keynesianism and Chicago School economics. In the spring of 1965 he transferred back to the University of California, Riverside, to study history, specializing in economic history and Puritan New England. His summer reading had prepared him for the work. He also studied Western intellectual history and social theory under Robert Nisbet who later held a distinguished chair at Columbia University. He completed his dissertation, The Concept of Property in Puritan New England, 1630-1720, and in 1972 received his Ph.D.

The Cultural Crisis

But North can be rightly understood only by understanding the times in which he lived. By the mid-1970’s, now in his thirties, North saw clearly that America was far down the fast track of radical transformation and on its way to ruin. The tranquil 1950’s had given way to the turbulent 1960’s and been transformed into the full-blown chaos of the 1970’s. Vietnam raged. Decades of Keynesianism and Socialism were crippling the economy. Nixon resigned in disgrace in 1974. While the U.S. Supreme Court had banned Bible reading and prayer from public schools in the early 1960’s, in 1973 it doubled down, overturned state laws across the country, and legalized the killing of babies in the womb. Organizations like the National and the World Council of Churches were promoting “situational ethics” and an apostate “Christianity” throughout America’s mainline churches. Having been taught not to bother polishing brass on a sinking ship, Bible-believing Christians and conservatives were watching the world they took for granted be dismantled before their eyes as they waited for the Rapture. Society’s bedrock foundations were crumbling and the whole social structure with it. The rot was going to the roots and it was bearing very bad fruit.

North (and Rushdoony) saw and understood the crisis and were on the leading edge of working not only to expose the unbiblical ideologies driving this transformation but, more importantly, to articulate the biblical foundations, principles and blueprints necessary for a revived social order. Rushdoony had already established the Chalcedon Foundation in 1965. In February 1967 North published his first article for pay. It appeared in The Freeman, the monthly magazine of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), the only libertarian think tank at the time. The Freeman was mailed to some 25,000 readers. It was the first of literally thousands and thousands of articles he would write over his career.

Other organizations were beginning to emerge in an effort to stand against the onslaught of the antagonist atheism. In 1972 Phyllis Schlafly founded Eagle Forum. In 1973 The Heritage Foundation was established by Ed Fuelner and Paul Weyrich. In 1974 Howard Phillips founded the Conservative Caucus and Weyrich started the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress, later called the Free Congress Foundation. In 1976 Bill Richardson founded the Gun Owners of America and in 1977 the near century-old NRA redirected its focus to politics. In 1977 Pat Robertson launched the CBN cable network. In 1978, Beverly LaHaye established Concerned Women for America (10 plus years behind the National Organization of Women, founded in 1966). In 1979 Falwell and Weyrich founded the Moral Majority. Not to be overlooked, in June of 1974 the remnant of Austrian school economists, including North, Rothbard, Henry Hazlitt, Milton Friedman and many others, met in Vermont. In the face of a relentless humanism, conservatives and Christians were beginning to organize and take action.

But the Christians had some limitations. Generally they had a common goal: live as lights in a dark world and pray “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.” They also generally shared a common motive: love of God and your fellow man, particularly by sharing the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ. But in the area of content or standards they had little of real substance to offer. “The Bible has the answers for all of life,” was the common refrain. But other than the general command to “love,” the Christians had few if any specific biblical answers and solutions to offer for the myriad of specific problems facing society on so many fronts. Christians – the Church – had come to take for granted the predominantly Christian character of their culture and were almost wholly ignorant of the biblical principles on which it was built. More rigorous analysis and deeper study of the Bible had to be done in order to set forth those truths.

Rebuilding on Biblical Foundations

In September 1971, North joined the senior staff of FEE. When Leonard Reed, FEE’s founder, informed him that any money he made writing or speaking would have to go to FEE, North decided he would not stay long.

In 1972 he married R. J. Rushdoony’s daughter, Sharon. He would say that if it were not for her, “you probably would never have heard of me” and “the only reason that I was successful was that my wife was patient with this lifestyle.” Understanding her father’s intense academic lifestyle, she could adapt to and support North in his. In addition to being committed to their children and providing an excellent family environment, she was an excellent accountant and operations manager.

In March of 1973 Sharon suggested he write an economic commentary on the Bible, verse by verse. After 4 years of work on the project and believing the pace to be inadequate, he took a vow. To complete the work he would devote 10 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, until his 70th birthday. He was then 35 years old.

In the spring of 1974 he and Sharon also began publishing a newsletter at the suggestion of someone who heard him speak at a conference. They named it Remnant Review, a testimony to be faithful in the calling and trust in the promises of God. Around 1976 North founded the Institute for Christian Economics and began publishing through it. He handled the writing. Sharon handled production (subscriptions, printing, filling envelopes, mailing, and even running the mechanical dog tag stamping device for addresses). She did it until the mailing list approached 2,000 subscribers. She also kept track of the money, never losing a dime.

In 1977 North published his first direct-mail book. It was based on a compilation of Remnant Review issues. His ad for the book led to the sale of some 20,000-30,000 copies from 1977-79 at $10 each ($40 in 2022). Those sales led to 2,000 subscribers. In 1979 he wrote another ad. It grew the list from 2,000 to 22,000, at $60 ($245 in 2022) per subscriber. He had become one of the few economists (and historians) actually making “real money” from his knowledge of economics and history.

His newsletter led to a job in Washington on the staff of one of his subscribers, a medical doctor from Texas named Dr. Ron Paul who had been elected to Congress. He hired North. Later in 1976 Paul lost reelection by 268 votes out of 192,802. North helped close down his office at the end of what would be just the first of Dr. Paul’s many terms in Congress.

North continued to produce. At the core were his convictions concerning certain fundamental truths.

First, man is God’s creation and inescapably subject to his authority. He is in a covenantal relationship with his Creator and, therefore, the status of that relationship is of absolute and paramount importance. As a consequence of his sin, he became an enemy of God and a stranger in God’s world. But based on Jesus’s perfect life and on his death, burial and resurrection, God brought redemption to anyone who would call upon him in repentance and faith. Based on the finished work of Jesus Christ alone, God would declare a condemned sinner forgiven and righteous and renew his relationship with his Maker.

Second, God had made man free and designed him to fulfill the Creation Mandate: subdue the earth and have dominion over it. Though the “first Adam” and his posterity failed because of sin, the “second Adam,” Jesus, would succeed. He would redeem his people, restore them to their created calling, and empower them by his Spirit to fulfill that mandate throughout the world on his behalf and to his glory (“Dominionism”).

Third, North believed that Jesus gave his disciples the Great Commission to make disciples and teach throughout the world all that God had revealed. Jesus declared that he had “all authority” in heaven and earth and that he would build his church and even the gates of hell could not stop it. Based on his Word and promise, despite the conflicts and troubles in the world, the nations of the earth would eventually bow before the King of kings, and his kingdom would be realized in history in significant measure and on a vast scale before his return (“Postmillenialism”).

Fourth, North believed that God’s Word governed all of life and that mankind would either suffer or be blessed in rejecting or following it. Whether it concerned man in his psychology, sociology, economics, philosophy, history, science or any other area, the Bible was the absolute standard. No professor, politician or “public intellectual” knew better than the Bible. This applied even in the areas of the political order and the law (“Theonomy” – God’s law).

Based on these truths, man was called to engage in the great task of working to see the fallen world reconstructed to God’s glory according to the Bible (“Christian Reconstruction”). North was committed to this calling.

As North would work out these principles in his writing, chief among his influences were Cornelius VanTil (philosophy/theology), Rushdoony (law), Ludwig von Mises (economics), John Calvin and John Murray (theology), and Robert Nisbet (social theory). Each was an exceptional scholar and produced critical writings with tremendous insight. North would follow in their train and his production would be nothing less than astounding.

It is noteworthy that among those influences, neither Mises nor Nisbet were professing Christians. What concerned North was not whether one claimed to be a Christian; there was no shortage of ministers and so-called Christian academics promoting unbiblical teaching like evolution, Keynesianism, and socialism. What was critical was the quality of the scholarship and whether the ideas the individual taught were consistent with the Bible or provided valuable information and insight to help understand it. In so many areas the writings of Mises and Nisbet did this. The same could be said for scholars like Rothbard, Harold Berman, Jacques Barzun, Martin van Creveld, James Billington, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, and so many others whose work North admired.

North made great strides in laying out the biblical foundations, principles and blueprints for a revived social order.

As Marxism was becoming entrenched in American universities in the 1960’s, North wrote Marx’s Religion of Revolution in 1968. In 1972 he began to consolidate his views on economics and published An Introduction to Christian Economics. In 1976 he published and edited The Foundations of Christian Scholarship: Essays in the Van Til Perspective. It was a groundbreaking collection of essays by PhDs and experts in a variety of disciplines: economics, psychology, sociology, history, education, political science, mathematics, theology, and philosophy. Each had as its central focus the truth that the Bible, God’s revelation, was the ultimate standard for understanding each field. No field was “neutral.” None, ultimately, was even understandable apart from that revelation. Even when they did function in some measure, they had in fact borrowed and presumed biblical truths despite their formal antagonism to Christianity.

North continued to produce Remnant Review and eventually brought it under his website GaryNorth.com which he began in 2005. Over its 17 years North published four articles a day, six days a week, every week. The range of topics was encyclopedic and topics were treated in depth and detail. With his 23,000+ articles he was constantly trying to encourage his readers to excel in their jobs and callings, provide insights and tools to help them do it, and give them a greater understanding of their relationship to the movement of history. His website also had active and robust forums where subscribers could and would engage with him and each other on how to apply the information to their individual circumstances.

Amazon’s Alexa service ranks the popularity of websites, of which there are estimated to be over 200,600,000 that are active. The lower the number the more popular the website. Ranked lower than 500,000 (top .25%), the website has some influence. Lower than 200,000 (top .1%), it is significant. Lower than 100,000 (top .05%), it is widely read and influential. Before North’s illness bore down on him, his website ranked around 36,000 (top .018%). No website for any evangelical news magazine, news site, theological seminary, church denomination, or publisher was even close. Only John McArthur and John Piper, now established in well-staffed and promoted organizations (Grace to You and Desiring God), had similar web traffic. Among web magazines, only the 66-year old socially liberal and marginally evangelical Christianity Today had similar web traffic. Ligonier Ministries ranked around 80,000. Few were ranked lower than 150,000, and most, far higher, some near 2,000,000. As to time spent by visitors on the websites, the numbers are not even close. Readers of North’s website spent five to seven times more time on his than readers did on any of the others.

In addition to his newsletter and website, North published almost 100 books, half of which he wrote. Most he financed with his own money. The vast majority of what he published he has provided to the public free of charge at Free Christian Educational Resources, https://www.garynorth.com/freebooks/.

In 2012, after nearly 40 years, North fulfilled the vow he had taken in 1972 and completed his 31 volume economic commentary on the Bible. It was a remarkable achievement, accomplished only with resolute commitment. He then synthesized his years of economic study into six volumes: The Covenantal Structure of Christian Economics (2015, 2018), and a four volume series titled Christian Economics: Vol. 1: Student Edition (2017, 2020), Vol. 2: Teacher’s Edition (2017, 2020), Vol. 3: Activist’s Edition (2017, 2020), and Vol. 4 (in 2 volumes): Scholar’s Edition (2020). His books just on economics can be found here: https://www.garynorth.com/public/department180.cfm.

North also wrote extensively on history. Among his many books was the masterpiece Crossed Fingers (1996), a 1000-page detailed account of deceit used by theological liberals to capture the northern Presbyterian Church during the 20th Century. Ever a lover of footnotes North provides over 900 in just the first 300 pages.

To beat it all, North was a superb writer in every respect and a treat to read.

With his practical understanding of Austrian and Keynesian economics, North also knew how to interpret and benefit from market conditions. Just one example will suffice. When between 1999 and 2002 England’s worst Chancellor of the Exchequer in a thousand years persuaded the nation to systematically sell off 401 tonnes of its 715-tonne gold supply for an average price of $275 per ounce, North told his subscribers to buy. They bought. By the time of his death, gold was over $1,900.

North was also a frequent contributor to the two primary organizations that promoted Austrian economics and libertarian ideas. He provided many articles for the popular website LewRockwell.com and was a frequent speaker at the Mises Institute, particularly for its gathering of young scholars. His lectures on Mises, Keynes, and Rothbard alone were exceptional. The increasingly higher profile of the Mises Institute and Lew Rockwell’s website encouraged North that it was only a matter of time before defective ideas would fail and sound ideas would prevail.

Aware of the dismal condition of public education, North was also concerned that young people have access to top quality curriculum. After Ron Paul ended his service in government and his final campaign for President of the United States, he and North reunited to establish The Ron Paul Curriculum. Paul had spoken to massive crowds and received over 2,000,000 votes in the 2012 presidential primary. Families across the country would be eager to have their children educated consistent with the fundamental biblical principles Paul was articulating. North could create the material and organization to provide that education. Recruiting the teachers, preparing his own courses, and running the institution, North created an online K-12 school that has trained thousands of students across the county.

North’s interest in educational curriculum was not limited to grade school. Even up to his final months, he was working on plans to create a free seminary curriculum designed particularly for pastors working in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa.

North was also concerned about evangelism. His 2005 website Sustained Revival: A Comprehensive Plan for a Comprehensive Christian Revival, provided material focusing on that work. https://www.garynorth.com/public/department132.cfm.

North was also concerned to help those in financial trouble. For people wanting to get out from under the weight of debt he developed the website Deliverance from Debt, https://deliverancefromdebt.wordpress.com/. While he lived in the areas of Tyler, Texas and Memphis, Tennessee, he worked with Kairos Prison Ministry International. Some prisoners were soon to be released. Others would never be released. He taught them the gospel and that wherever they might be God had valuable work for them to do and they could serve him anywhere. During that same period he worked with a ministry that helped people learn how to get and keep a job.

Advice for the Future

North followed some important principles that enabled him to stick to his knitting, stay out of trouble, and be as productive as he was. At least 11 are worth mentioning. They are applicable to everyone.

First, a person must know his life’s calling: the most important thing he can do in which he would be most difficult to replace. North settled on his early: developing the field of biblical economics.

Second, remember the prophets. Isaiah’s job was to speak even when people would not listen and the work appeared fruitless. Elijah’s job was to speak even when he seemed to be the only one left. Jeremiah’s job was to speak but still conduct business (buy the land) knowing God’s plan for the future will prevail.

Third, forget trying to be in the “Inner Ring,” as C.S. Lewis called it. Do not yearn to be in the “in” group. There really isn’t any inner ring. Fourth, stick to your knitting. Do not get sidetracked. Press on.

Fifth, work to serve. Meet a need. Provide or do something useful. If someone will pay you for it, better still. Provide it for free if needs be, particularly if it’s consistent with your calling.

Sixth, discipline your time. It is the one resource that cannot be replaced. Once it’s gone, it cannot be recovered.

Seventh, strive to be the best, but don’t worry if you are not No. 1. There is plenty of room at the top for success and every expectation that you will surpass your peers if you simply apply yourself wisely and stick to your knitting.

Eighth, understand that you can’t fight something with nothing. Christians cannot just curse the darkness. They must pursue a positive biblical understanding and plan. When the world, suffering and at its wits end, asks Christians for help, they should be able to give biblical answers of substance.

Ninth, don’t pay too much attention to your critics. Some of North’s critics accused him over the years of having a poison pen, of being uncharitable, sharp and harsh. North’s piercing critiques, however, were usually reserved for those who held themselves out to be experts in a field, “teachers of the law,” so to speak. As they sought to persuade and lead others, he would challenge them if he thought they were leading people into error and trouble. If their work was shoddy or suspect, North was likely to expose it and in colorful terms. Some took the lead and criticized his work first. In addition to lacking depth and rigor in general, his opponents were generally short on historical background and real world understanding. When the exchange ended they were likely to find themselves on the losing side and unable to respond; they slipped quietly away. His most disingenuous critics simply misrepresented his positions and raised straw man arguments, the most uncharitable kind of all.

Tenth, be confident in God’s power and his plan to change the world. God’s kingdom would not likely come in a single generation. Nor would it come from some sudden political takeover, a centralized government, or vigilante violence. It would not come from the top down. But it would come. It would come gradually, over time, from the bottom up, as God moved in people’s hearts and they embraced a biblical worldview and system of law.

Eleventh, pay your tithe. It reminds a person that he owes everything to God.

Finally, North hoped his work would help lay a solid foundation, not be the final answer. He hoped others would take up where he left off and improve on his work. As he concluded his Christian Economics: Scholar’s Edition (2020), he wrote: “Finally, count the cost. If you then decide to become a Christian economics scholar as a calling, I offer this strategy. Correct my errors, extend my breakthroughs, write several monographs, produce videos, recruit and train followers, and do not become sidetracked. It is easy to become sidetracked, especially by money. Also, if someone asks you what kind of economist you are, never say ‘Northian.’ ‘Northist’ is even worse. Say that you are a covenantalist. Now, find your calling and get to work.” https://www.garynorth.com/public/20635.cfm

May there be many who will pursue their own callings as North did his. The world will be a better place for it.

His work is done. His rest has begun.

North was preceded in death by his son Caleb who suffered from a rare illness. He is survived by Sharon, his wife of 50 years, and their other children Darcy North, Scott North and his wife, Angela, and Lori McDurmon and her husband, Joel, and eight grandchildren.

Memorial service details forthcoming.