Theonomy

1. Until the 1970's, "theonomy" was used to categorize all the differing views that see God as the source of ethics. Using the word in this sense, Cornelius Van Til recognized that there “is no alternative but that of theonomy or autonomy." (Christian Theistic Ethics p.134). But the category "theonomy", however, contains a number of views, each differing from the others in their conceptions of exactly how and in what respects the Bible is meant to function as the source of Christian ethics today. On the Protestant side alone, the Dispensationalist position that all of the OT Mosaic Law (Genesis to Deuteronomy) is abrogated today unless repeated again in the New Testament; the ethical perspective of Christian Reconstruction which presumes all OT laws as applicable today, unless amended or abrogated by the New Testament.

2. Since the 1970's theonomy has been most often used in Protestant circles to label the ethical perspective of Christian Reconstructionism, a perspective most noted for its attempts to show how the ethical standards of the Old Testament, and especially the Standing Laws of the Old Testament, as well as its general ethical principles, are applicable to modern society. The remainder of this article elaborates this meaning.

In the terminology of Christian Reconstructionism, theonomy is the idea that, in the Bible, God provides the basis of both personal and social ethics. In that context, the term is always used in antithesis to autonomy, which is the idea that Self provides the basis of ethics. Theonomic ethics asserts that the Bible has been given as the abiding standard for all human government — individual, family, church, and civil; and that Biblical Law must be incorporated into a Christian theory of Biblical ethics.

The Late Dr. Greg Bahnsen explains that when he wrote outlining the ethical perspective of Christian reconstruction and called his book Theonomy in Christian Ethics he had:

"...no thought of generating a label for a distinctive school of thought or "movement." (Indeed, it was the opponents of the viewpoint presented in the book who first took it upon themselves to refer to others as "theonomists.") Quite simply, the title was chosen to describe the subject matter taken up in the book: namely, the place or function of God's law in the moral philosophy of the Christian. The book explored the validity of God's law for the believer today. Special attention was given to the difficult question (on which I had written my masters thesis in theology [in 1973]) of whether "secular" civil magistrates stood under obligation to the relevant portions of the Old Testament law, for instance, the stipulations as to what punishment crimes deserve.

"The term "theonomy" was attractive because it nicely contrasted with certain opposing lines of thought which also contained the word nomos in their designations: positions like "autonomy," "cosmonomic" philosophy, and "antinomianism." Moreover, far from being an esoteric term, it had been commonly used in moral theology for an approach to ethics which submits to divine revelation.The Calvinistic ethicist, Willem Geesink, wrote in his book, Reformed Ethics:

"Theonomy is the legislation inspired by God, grounded in His sovereign law of creation.... The peculiarity of Calvinism is the idea that God is Lord and the Lawgiver of all men. This one already finds with Calvin, in his sketch of the Christian life, when he says: "We are God's property, and not our own," and "Let His will then have the paramount sway over all our deeds".... The principle of Theonomy was therefore more purely preserved in the Old-Protestant Theology than it was with Rome, where it received a heteronomous flavor from the Church."

"Theonomic ethics, to put it simply, represents a commitment to the necessity, sufficiency, and unity of Scripture. For an adequate and genuinely Christian ethic, we must have God's word, only God's word, and all of God's word. Nearly every critic of theonomic ethics will be found denying, in some way, one or more of these premises." ---from The Theonomic Antithesis to Other Law-Attitudes

Critics see theonomy as a significant form of Dominion theology, which they define as a type of theocracy. Theonomy posits that the Biblical Law is applicable to civil law, and theonomists propose Biblical law as the standard by which the laws of nations may be measured, and to which they ought to be conformed.

[edit] Theological background

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The type of theonomic ethics depends on the Covenant theology in which it is embedded. The Reformed wing of the Reformation showed a strong interest in Biblical law, and this was especially so in the Britain where there was a tradition of Biblical law going back into the Middle Ages. The development of a clear bi-convenantal system of theology provided a framework to support theonomy. Covenant theology holds that there are two fundamental covenants between God and man. The first is the Covenant of Works, made with Adam, the covenant representative of all humanity and thus binding on all of humanity. The other covenant is the Covenant of Grace, made with Christ and his church. Covenant theology sees the law given through Moses as containing (but not limited to) a republication of the moral content of the original Covenant of Works. As such this moral content is universally binding and parts of it fall within the responsibility of civil government to enforce. As an example of this interpretation, the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter XIX.v states that The moral law does forever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof; and that, not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God the Creator, who gave it. Neither does Christ, in the Gospel, any way dissolve, but much strengthen this obligation. By 1787, when John Brown's Compendious View of Natural and Revealed Religion was published, Biblical law was a major division of systematic theology. Brown gives it fifty pages. One type of theonomy, as taught by Greg Bahnsen is a development of this bi-covenantal type of theology.

An additional contribution by the Reformation, especially in its Scottish, Presbyterian expression, to Bahnsonian theonomy is the Regulative Principle of Worship. This holds that we may only worship God in the manner that God has commanded. These commands are to be found in the Bible and those in the Old Testament are still binding, except where they have been modified by direct commandment, example, or the logical implication of these in the New Testament. This same interpretive principle was applied by Greg Bahnsen to ethics was well as to worship. There is, therefore, standing law from the Old Testament, found in its greatest detail in the law of Moses, that still binds today, except where it has been overturned by the commands of the New Testament, apostolic example in the New Testament, and what these logically imply.

R.J. Rushdoony, however, rejected the bi-convenantal system of Covenant theology, denying that there had been a Covenant of Works. Therefore Rushdoony's theonomy is tied to a different theological system that he developed, and took on idiosyncrasies not found in Puritan and Presbyterian forms of theonomy.

A third type of Reconstructionist theonomy was followed by some writers associated with the Institute for Christian Economics in Tyler, Texas (which also published some of Bahnsen's works). These writers, especially James Jordan, followed the mono-covenantalism of Rushdoony, but put an emphasis on the idea that, as there was only one covenant, and that covenant was given to the Church, and law was given within that covenant, law was given to the Church, and not to the world. The implication of this was soon understood to be that the writings of Moses were not a law code as such, and that theonomy was not a legitimate idea, nor was Christian Reconstruction which took theonomy as its moral foundation. Biblical law was still seen as important, but secondary to ecclesiastical concerns. Eventually a new theological movement, known as Federal Vision theology, emerged.

There are types of theonomy separate from Christian Reconstruction. John Robbins, an acerbic critic of Christian Reconstruction, launched his Trinity Review with an article "The Christian and the Law" by Gordon H. Clark in which Clark argues that "good and evil are defined only by the law of God." Carl F. H. Henry, who was strongly influenced by Clark, also published a defense of divine command ethics. Evangelical theologian Walter Kaiser, Jr. wrote extensively on theonomic ethics, placing it within his own Promise theology, but interacting with the ideas of Bahnsen and Jordan, whose work he found especially helpful.

[edit] Development

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The presuppositions and the outline of theonomy's proposals appeared in the 1600s in the New England colonies. In the 1970s, in the works of Rousas John Rushdoony (1973, The Institutes of Biblical Law), and Greg Bahnsen (1977, Theonomy in Christian Ethics) revived these sentiments. These two works, together with other writings, influenced a number of Christian political activists and prolific writers, who proposed their own elaborations of the idea, developing specific answers to contemporary social, political and economic issues, on the basis of their understandings of Biblical Law.

Rousas John Rushdoony writes that the god of a culture can be located by fixing its source of law. If the source of law is the ontological Trinity of Christian revelation, then that Trinity is the God of that culture. If the source of law rests in the people, then the voice of the people is the voice of God (vox populi, vox dei), and that voice finds expression and incarnation either in a leader, a legislative body, or a supreme court, depending on which gains the ascendency. The highest point in the processes of law is the god of that system. (1978, The Politics of Guilt and Pity)

[edit] Goals

Theonomists support the applicability of Biblical principles to four spheres of government - self-government or self control, family government, church government, and state or civil government. Jay Rogers in Theofaq states that Theonomists believe that civil government is only one sphere of government. In fact, it is not even the most important one. We advocate regeneration first and only then reconstruction. We do not advocate revolution.

Theonomists support public policy changes in accord with Biblical principles, but see those changes as coming about as a result of, and not the cause of, conversions to Christianity. Many seek a future earthly "Kingdom of God" in which much of the world is converted to Christianity. They cite the numerous scripture passages referring to God's collective judgment upon unrighteous nations and God's blessing upon those rulers and societies heeding His Word as evidence that the presence or absence of Christian values may profoundly influence the rise and fall of nations.

Although theonomic writers may not always agree on specific policy matters, goals often cited include:

Elevation of the importance of Biblical case law in the judicial system.
Importance of civic rule by believers.
Recovery of a more public and formalized acknowledgment of the sovereignty of God over human government, as they argue was predominant in the American Founding Era.

Sources: http://www.forerunner.com/theofaq.html http://www.answers.com/topic/theonomy-1

[edit] See also

[edit] References

See references at Christian Reconstructionism for links to free online versions of many of these books.

Avis, P.D.L. 1975 "Moses and the Magistrate: a Study in the rise of Protestant Legalism", Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. XXVI, No. 2, April 1975.

Bahnsen, Greg. 1977 [2002] Theonomy in Christian Ethics. [3rd Edition] Nacogdoches, Tx: Covenant Media Press.

Bahnsen, Greg. 1984 By This Standard. Tyler, Tx.: Institute for Christian Economics.

Bahnsen, Greg. 1991 No Other Standard: Theonomy and Its Critics. Tyler, Tx.: Institute for Christian Economics.

Bahnsen, Greg (with Kenneth Gentry). 1989 House Divided: The Breakup of Dispensational Theology. Tyler, Tx.: Institute for Christian Economics.

Barker, William (Ed). 1990 Theonomy: A Reformed Critique. Grand Rapids, MI.: Zondervan.

Barron, Bruce. 1992 Heaven on Earth? The Social & Political Agenda of Dominion Theology. Grand Rapids, MI.: Zondervan.

Einwechter, William. 1995 Ethics and God's Law: An Introduction to Theonomy. Mill Hall, PA.: Preston/Speed Publications.

Foulner, Martin. 1997 Theonomy and the Westminster Confession. Edinburgh, UK: Marpet Press.

Gentry, Kenneth. 1993 God's Law in the Modern World. Phillipsburg, NJ.: Presbyterian & Reformed.

Gentry, Kenneth. 2006 Covenantal Theonomy: A Response to T. David Gordon and Klinean Covenantalism. Nacogdoches, Tx.: Covenant Media Foundation.

Jordan, James B. 1984 The Law of the Covenant: An Exposition of Exodus 21-23 Tyler, TX: Institute for Christian Economics.

North, Gary (Ed). 1991 Theonomy: An Informed Response. Tyler, TX.: Institute for Christian Economics.

Poythress, Vern S. 1991 The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses. Brentwood TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt Publishers Inc.

Rushdoony, R.J. 1973 Institutes of Biblical Law., Nutley, NJ.: Craig Press.

Rushdoony, R.J. 1978 The Politics of Guilt and Pity. Fairfax, VA.: Thoburn Press.

Strickland, Wayne (Ed). 1994 Five Views on Law and Gospel. Grand Rapids, MI.: Zondervan. ISBN 0-310-21271-5

Smith, Gary Scott (Ed). 1989 God and Politics: Four Views on the Reformation of Civil Government. Phillipsburg, NJ.: Presbyterian & Reformed. ISBN 0-87552-448-6

Welch, John W. 2002 "Biblical Law in America: Historical Perspectives and Potentials for Reform", Brigham Young University Law Review, 2002, pp. 611-642.