FACS! Fundamentals for American Christians

FACS! Fundamentals for American Christians E-book
By Dr. Paul Jehle, Executive Director, Plymouth Rock Foundation

RUS WALTON wrote Fundamentals for American Christians in 1978. It was first published by Plymouth Rock Foundation in loose leaf format as a self-study course for American Christians. At the time, Rus was hailed as “one of the most significant Christians of our time...one of the most influential voices in America in pointing out the suicidal direction of our country in calling us back to the Word of God, to repentance, and to submission to that Word - specifically and practically spelling out God’s program for renewal and reformation...”. Why was Rus Walton given such admiration by Christian leaders in the 1970’s?

Rus had risen on the scene in 1976 when he published One Nation Under God. This book did not sport surface clichés or trite phrases to get an emotional response from believers about their heritage. The book taught solid, Biblical, principles and applied them to self and civil government, a topic ignored and at times even hated by the very believers who benefited the most from their American heritage of such a government. It was also thoroughly researched, containing scores of statistics to back up the slide of America toward socialism’s big government spending and its twin sister - debt. It not only blew the whistle when most were still singing the tune of socialistic thinking, it paved a solution for the very nation trapped in the quagmire of the political machinery of unconstitutional bureaucracy.

But Rus Walton did not simply appear out of nowhere. A savvy political warrior in his own right, Rus had managed congressional campaigns, directed public relations for a presidential campaign, and had served as the senior staff writer under Governor Ronald Reagan in California. He knew politics and politicians, and as he put it, “from the precincts to the Babylon-on-the-Potomac.” In 1977, Rus was hired by John G. Talcott, Jr. of Plymouth Rock Foundation to be its second Executive Director. It was in 1978 that I met Rus Walton and read the first draft of his FACS notebook. I was impressed.

Rus understood that Christians in America had retreated from involvement in their communities, and one of the reasons for this was thinking the realm of civil government was “evil” and “pagan.” It was something to be shunned as distracting from the real work of preaching the gospel. Far from being a distraction however, civil government in America had arisen as a result of the preaching of the gospel, thus, utilizing the true history of America, Rus built an apologetic for believers seeing civil government as merely an extension of their self (or internal) government. Though very relevant in 1978, it has now become critical for the survival of our Republic.

The skill of his professional writing comes through, as well as the simple, logical development of Biblical principles and premises, consistently applied.  This work, published in paperback in 1979, and now in an e-book format, will help the believer study the Bible, as well as see illustrations of its principles through the history of the American nation. Clearly standing on the Bible as the Word of God, this book can now easily be used in home Bible studies, Sunday schools and small groups for the purpose of renewing the mind in what the gospel produces if lived out consistently. May we see another revolution in the realm of ideas - turning back to the foundation of God’s Word!