Are You A Theonomist? | Doug Wilson

are you a fee animist if so are you in Christian Reconstructionist if not why not [Music] okay so I've been asked the question enough that my my joking response is are you - are you a Theon amidst I would say oh oh no I hate God's law all fee animus means chaos is God and namaz is law so every Christian is a thei animist in some sense so every Christian believes that human beings ought to do what God requires them to do so the only question after that is what did you tell us to do so then you're now you're dealing with hermeneutics so I wanna I'm and this is not just being coy or cute I want to say that every obedient Christian or every Christian who who insists that God needs to be obeyed why do you call me Lord Lord and do not do what I say is the thei anima stand principle so the question after that is what did this sovereign God tell us to do and then that brings in a host of questions about the relationship of Old Testament law to New Testament law what did the coming of Christ do in the fulfillment of the law you know how do we understand all those things and my my understanding of that is fairly classically classically reformed and I would describe myself as a Westminster Theano most okay okay so so I'm a affirm the continuing validity and authority of God's law as expressed in the Old Testament in the time of the New Covenant according to certain careful stipulations the Western the Westminster Confession says that God's law in the Old Testament was moral ceremonial and judicial okay the moral law continues on you shall not murder you shall not murder ceremonial is fulfilled in Christ we don't sacrifice bulls and goats anymore because Christ is the sacrifice the judicial law and this is very interesting the judicial law the Westminster Confession says that the laws that governed Israel in the time of that Commonwealth Knoll are no longer ceased with the cessation of that Commonwealth so once Israel went away the laws of Israel went away except the Westminster Confession says as the judicial as the general equity thereof may require okay so I'm a general equity fionna masti I believe that the moral law continues down to the present and how and I would I'd want to distinguish sins and crimes so if the Bible says that something is sinful and ought to be a crime like murder or rape I don't have any problem saying that we ought to have laws against rape under the New Covenant in the time of the New Covenant and I would cite an Old Testament passage to justify that if and I would also have no problem saying no we're not supposed to sacrifice bulls and goats we're not supposed to have temples we're not supposed to go back because Jesus Christ died then on the judicial equity and this is there's a there's a world whole world here but suppose I'm a judge in the time of the New Covenant and someone slips and breaks their arm because someone else didn't shovel it or walk or they fell off a second-story deck because there was no deck railing okay in the Old Testament there was a law that they had to have a parapet around the roof of their house because in the evening in the Middle East everybody would go up on the roof to cool off and since everybody would go up there they required them to have a railing or around the roof of the house so if I'm if I'm king for a day and my ideal New Covenant Republic I don't make people put a parapet around the roof of their house because that's it you just judicial requirement for is and that ceased with the cessation of those circumstances in that Republic but the general equity of that that I'm responsible for the welfare of my guests would make me side with the plaintiff if they slipped on the ice or or fell off a second-story deck and I'd say you you need to have a railing on your deck because the general equity of the law requires that okay and that that incidentally is how common law works what King Alfred did is he just basically took the and when he established the common law system that we still operate with he just took the laws of Deuteronomy and made them the laws of England and and he didn't do this as though they were Justinian law sort of top-down regulatory agencies trying to anticipate everything and if they didn't cover it you got off on a technicality the common law expects everybody to be operating in terms of the general equity you look at the law you you deduce from that extract from that the principle and you apply the principle to other situations that may vary okay so that that was your explanation of the enemy what what about christian reconstruction so christian reconstruction is taking all of that high high-flying theory and applying it to these united states all right so let's reconstruct the republic let's go return to a biblical foundation for governed governance as opposed to our current secular secularism and i'm entirely in favor of abandoning secularism i believe that secularism is a failed project and i believe that Christians need to summon the nation back to righteousness and righteousness has to be defined by the Bible so I am I suppose it would be fair to say that I am a certain kind of Christian reconstruction in that I want the laws to be reconstructed in accordance with biblical values I'm not a secularist but I'm not a so it's one sense yes in another sense were you a card-carrying member of the Christian Reconstructionist of the 1980s Greg Bahnson Gary North Rush Tunis and so forth no I wasn't wasn't a card-carrying member of that movement okay are you trying to resurrect that movement well I I would like a kinder gentler reconstruction okay so one of the problems with reconstruction ISM back then was they had terrible time getting along with you with each other okay which ironically is a violation of the enemy God's law is you should love the Lord your God with all your heart soul - strengthen and the second is like unto it love your neighbor as yourself and I believe that we have to the basically I'll put it this way I think Christians need to reconstruct the church before we reconstruct the Republic okay okay that was upside down in that I think it was upside down in certain parts of that movement yeah I think it was a significant deficiency because I believe that we have to model what the new humanity looks like in Christ in churches and show that we have the wisdom and the biblical knowledge to know how to get along and we have to live it out and as we as we model that as we showcase it and we establish it in various townships and communities and and and we're doing this people are going to say hey look at that I think there's going to be a certain attractiveness to it I don't think we should run for Congress and try to impose this from the top okay so how does how do you get the godly laws voted in then if it's not imposed from the time but I do think the there's another element to this it's not that I think that imposition from the top is irrelevant and I think that's an important piece but you don't want a reformation like Josiah had where it's all from the top and then he gets killed in a battle and then Israel's back to the way they were right away but neither do you want the people like sheep without a shepherd longing for righteousness and no one thought they no one is willing to lead them so and you're in your vision then it would be preachers first followed by Christian preachers first followed by godly politicians yeah preachers and congregations followed by politicians and populations okay

Channel: Canon Press

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Id: lBgUnih2Bs0

Length: 9min 44sec (584 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 13 2018