Theonomy (from

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

''theos'' "God" and ''nomos'' "law") is a hypothetical

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

form of government in which

divine law Divine law is any body of law that is perceived as deriving from a Transcendence (religion), transcendent source, such as the will of God or godsin contrast to man-made law or to secular law. According to Angelos Chaniotis and Rudolph F. Peters, di ...

governs societies. Theonomists hold that societies should observe divine law, particularly the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

’s judicial laws. The movement’s chief architects were Gary North, Greg Bahnsen, and R.J. Rushdoony. Theonomy presumes biblical Israel’s

Old Covenant Abrahamic religions believe in the Mosaic covenant (named after Moses), also known as the Sinaitic covenant (after the biblical Mount Sinai), which refers to a covenant between the Israelite tribes and God, including their proselytes, not lim ...

judicial laws have not been abrogated, and therefore all civil governments must enforce them (including the specific penalties). Theonomy holds that all civil governments must refrain from coercion if Scripture has not prescribed their intervention (the "regulative principle of the state"). Theonomy is distinct from the "theonomous ethics" proposed by

Paul Tillich Paul Johannes Tillich (; ; August 20, 1886 – October 22, 1965) was a German and American Christian existentialist philosopher, religious socialist, and Lutheran theologian who was one of the most influential theologians of the twenti ...

Origin

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...

held, "if a sovereign were to order these judicial precepts to be observed in his kingdom, he would not sin." Some have mistakenly referred to that as "General Equity Theonomy" but it is in fact distinct from theonomy insofar as Aquinas believed the specifics of the Old Testament judicial laws were no longer binding. He instead taught that the judicial precepts contained varying degrees of universal principles of justice that reflected

natural law Natural law (, ) is a Philosophy, philosophical and legal theory that posits the existence of a set of inherent laws derived from nature and universal moral principles, which are discoverable through reason. In ethics, natural law theory asserts ...

. In

Christian reconstructionism Christian reconstructionism is a fundamentalist Calvinist theonomic movement. It developed primarily under the direction of R. J. Rushdoony, Greg Bahnsen and Gary North and has had an important influence on the Christian right in the Unit ...

, theonomy is the idea that God provides the basis of both personal and social

ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...

in the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

. Theonomic ethics asserts that the Bible has been given as the abiding standard for all human authority (individual, family, church, and civil) and that

biblical law {{Short description, Legal aspects of the Bible Biblical law is the legal aspects of the Bible, the holy scriptures of Christianity and Judaism. Christianity * Abrogation of Old Covenant laws * Christian views on the Old Covenant, term referring t ...

must be incorporated into a Christian theory of biblical ethics. Critics see theonomy as a significant form of dominion theology, which they define as a

theocracy Theocracy is a form of autocracy or oligarchy in which one or more deity, deities are recognized as supreme ruling authorities, giving divine guidance to human intermediaries, with executive and legislative power, who manage the government's ...

. Theonomy posits that the biblical law is applicable to civil law, and theonomists propose biblical law as the standard by which laws may be measured and to which they ought to be conformed.

Goals

Various theonomic authors have stated such goals as "the universal development of Biblical theocratic republics," exclusion of non-Christians from voting and citizenship, and the application of Biblical law by the state. Under such a system of biblical law, homosexual acts, adultery, witchcraft, and blasphemy would be punishable by death. Propagation of idolatry or "false religions" would be illegal and could also be punished by the death penalty. More recent theonomic writers such as Joel McDurmon, former President of American Vision, have moved away from this position, stating that these death penalties are no longer binding in the new covenant. Former pastor and theonomy critic, JD Hall, who debated McDurmon in 2015, has argued that abandoning Mosaic penologies such as the death penalty means that McDurmon and others who hold similar positions cannot be said to hold to theonomy in any meaningful way. According to the theonomist Greg Bahnsen, the laws of God are the standard which Christian voters and officials ought to pursue. The civil law given to the nation of Israel, it is stated, is continuously binding, although apart from what he considers to be surrounding cultural connotations specific to this nation itself.

Relation to Reformed theology

Some in modern

Reformed churches Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Christian, Presbyterian ...

criticize any relationship between the historical Reformed faith and theonomy, but other Calvinists affirm that theonomy is consistent with the historic Reformed confessions.Se
''Theonomic Ethics and the Westminster Confession''
by Kenneth Gentry, ''The New Puritanism: A Preliminary Assessment of Christian Reconstruction'' by Robert Bowman, Jr.
Theonomy and the Westminster Confession''
by Martin Foulner
''The Theonomic Precedent in the Theology of John Calvin''
by Christopher Strevel, an

by James Jordan, an

by Greg Bahnsen
''Biblical Ethics and the Westminster Standards''
by Dr. W. Gary Crampton

References

External links

What is Theonomy?
by Chalcedon Foundation
Proof that Modern Theonomy Advocates the Historic Understanding of the Judicial Law

Comments on an Old-New Error
by Meredith Kline
The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses
by Vern Poythress {{Relpolnav Far-right politics Christian reconstructionism Christian terminology Dominion theology Mosaic law in Christian theology Theocracy

Origin

Goals

Relation to Reformed theology

See also

References

Further reading

External links