1. Today I want to talk about the topic of theonomy. But before we do that, can you share abit about who you are and where you're from with my readers?
Thanks again for opportunity. I professed Christ at a young age and slowly over time the grace of God has brought me into greater conformity to His Son. I am not there yet, but am humbled that God has chosen to save a sinner like myself. I love Christ and am always awed by His gospel, the simplicity of the gospel message and how it continues to change me. I am married to my wife of 12 years, with 3 amazing young boys and lots of lego. We homeschool our boys which means mom is a very busy mom. My wife and I share a passion for knowing God and I could not ask for a better encourager and supporter through all that we have been through. We live in Regina. Where we live, our family rubs shoulders with many other families from allover the world. It is really cool. We are members of a healthy church. Our church in the process of planting a church in Regina, where our family are members. The church plant is a confessional, subscribing to the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession. Perhaps relevant to the discussion here, our church remained open during the covid lockdowns. I was a pastor for a couple of years at a couple of churches right before the covid crisis. They were your typical small rural church on the Canadian prairies. You and I met within our former missions organization that sent us to our churches. Now I wash farm equipment because that is what you do with a bachelors in theology outside of the church. The last book I read was Marrow of Modern Divinity by Edward Fisher. I am currently reading The Fountain of Life: A Display of Christ in His Essential and Mediatorial Glory by John Flavel. 2. Theonomy seems to be a popular topic of discussion in some circles these days. Can you share a bit about what it is, the meaning of the word, and the history that surrounds it? Advocates of theonomy would define the theonomy simply as “God’s law.” “Theo”,Θεοςmeaning “God” and “nomos”,νομόςmeaning “law”. It is used to mean Christ is Lord over all and the way that He reigns is by means of His law. Christ’s reign is manifested wherever His lawis being obeyed. Theonomists believe we need to order all of society around the law, impacting different spheres of authority such as family, church, work, government, and art. Theonomy has a strong postmillennial eschatology. As Christ’s reign is advanced, the kingdom of God is advanced. So as our culture, which was once grounded in God’s law turns away from God’s law, it comes under the curse of the law. If we want to experience the law’s blessings, we need to bring our civil law into conformity to the law. They do argue that Christ has done away with the ceremonial laws, while the rest of the law is still binding today. According to theonomist’s the mission of the church is to “disciple the nations” teaching them to obey and do all that Christ commands. Theonomists use a very flat definition of the word law. What theonomists understand as law, historic Christianity understands as the mosaic law. They teach God reigns in His people today with the rules and regulations that were given at Mt. Sinai except for the ceremonial laws. They hold to the moral and civil laws as binding today. They see great continuity between both the Old and New Testaments as opposed to a system like dispensationalism or progressive covenantalism which sees mainly discontinuity between the Testaments. Fundamentally, theonomy is a hermeneutical (how you read the Bible) error, which seeks to wrongly apply aspects of the mosaic covenant to the new covenant. Politically, theonomists tend to be a kind of libertarian, usually stressing faithfulness to the law in the family (strong complementarians), then local, then national, while holding to small government. Within this system, everyone is accountable to Christ for their sphere of sovereignty. Not all theonomists are unified in how to apply the law to society. Theonomists area type of Christian reconstructionism, and principally a social reform movement, like the the social justice movement. So to summarize theonomy, theonomists have a strict continuationist hermeneutic of the law, which impacts their view of society and eschatological (last days doctrine) hope in the redemption of society. The history of theonomy is somewhat recent, although some try to tie it back to the Puritans. Recently, it was a man name R.J. Rushdooney (1916-2001) who published The Institutes of Biblical Law in 1973. The book is based on a series of lectures he gave at his Chalcedon Foundation. In it he argued for the law of Moses being applied to all of life here and now or specifically, the laws had been particular to the nation of Israel are directly applicable to the church and the world today. He was the one to really develop the hermeneutic or biblical theological framework of theonomy. Rushdooney took the positive precepts that were unique to the nation of Israel, to the mosaic covenant and applied it to both the new covenant and to other nations, with few distinctions. So how did this hermeneutical error get a foothold into evangelicalism? During the rise of Rushdooney’s influence, you had the rise of Christian Reconstructionism. The goal of Christian Reconstructionism was to bring Christian morals back to the culture. This was in no small part due to the passing of Roe v. Wade in the States, where abortion on demand was legalized in all50 states. Within this greater movement, Rushdooney provided a basis and goal for his particular stripe of Christian Reconstructionism. So like the Moral Majority under Jerry Falwell, theonomy under Rushdooney sought to get evangelicals engaged in politics for social change. First generation theonomists would establish themselves in evangelicalism within Christian Reconstructionism movement peak in the 1980s and 1990s.Rushdooney is the father of theonomy. Others like Greg Bahnsen, Gary North, Gary Demar are part of the first generation of theonomists. Today, men like Doug Wilson, and Andrew Sandlin would carry on his theonomic legacy with their own second generation nuances. In Canada, Joseph Boot has adapted theonomy for a Canadian context and a broader audience. Why is theonomy popular today? I’ll give seven reasons. One, theonomic Christian Reconstructionism never died out from the 80s. Two, respectfully, for the past 100 years or so evangelicalism has grown ignorant of it’s theology and history. We do not know what the average catechized church member knew over a hundred years ago. The quality of men produced at our educational institutions were caught up in pragmatism to grow churches and were biblically illiterate. Third, of more recent years, with the rise of neo-calvinistic organizations, such as T4Gand the Gospel Coalition, evangelicals were rediscovering great biblical doctrines like the doctrines of grace. They came from nondenominational backgrounds and were looking to for are formed tradition home. Theonomists like Doug Wilson were ready to give them a home knowing how to use social media, where younger generations are fluent in use. Fourth, conservative evangelicalism was still contending over the lordship controversy from the 80s. The lordship salvation controversy was over differing views of sanctification. One side argued that a Christian was carnal until they made Jesus Lord over all their and the lordship side taught Jesus was Lord right from conversion. Either way, both held an unreformed views of the relationship between justification and sanctification. These views show up in the way theonomists hold to sanctification of a nation. Many within the old lordship position who held to “Jesus is Lord” are converting to theonomy’s “Jesus is King over all” position. Fifth, the covid crisis showed a hole in our theology when it came to public theology, and the separation of the spheres of church and government. Evangelicals, already weak in theology, went to a ready-made system like theonomy without examining historical alternatives. Six, theonomist fervor is fuelled by western culture becoming secular. They really believe a return to the mosaic law culturally will bring back a Christian culture. Seven, people are naturally drawn to a works-salvation for themselves and for culture. There are multiple reasons for theonomy sprouting once again. The hard part as a confessional guy is to see young men and women are falling prey to quick-fix law hermeneutic. Had our churches been clear on issues of law and gospel, their members would have not fallen prey to theonomists and their arguments. 3. Do you agree or disagree with theonomy and to what extent?I do not agree with theonomy. I reject the poor hermeneutics of theonomy and my confession prohibits theonomy. Confessional men, like Turretin, Owen, Coxe, Fisher, Flavel, Bunyan, Boston, Spurgeon, Martyn Lloyd-Jones and R.C. Sproul (I name key men from multiple times and multiple traditions), all held to the three key covenants: the covenant of redemption (CoR),the covenant of works (CoW), and the covenant of grace (CoG).The CoR is drawn from Christ’s statements in John where the Father has sent the Son to redeem a people for Himself for God’s own self-glorification. It is an expression of inter-Trinitarian love; the Father and Son, along with the Holy Spirit would glorify God by ordaining a fallen human race of which God would redeem a people, and then bring them into union with Himself. From this covenant would be two covenants operating in creation, the CoW and the CoG. The CoW would be defined bylaw. In the original CoW, Adam would have to keep the moral law expressed in it’s precept, do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, to enter into the glorified state. Adam sinned and merited wrath for himself and his offspring. He had to work to earn favor with God, hence the name CoW. In the mosaic covenant, the republishing of the CoW, the people of Israel had to keep 613 laws, meriting to themselves either blessings or curses to keep them in the land of Canaan. And the rest of the Old Testament is a testimony to how even Israel could not keep the mosaic covenant. The Old Testament demonstrates that no one could keep the CoW and how man could never merit eternal life with a Holy God. However, there was only one man that kept the CoW, Christ. He kept all of it’s precepts and fulfilled the law. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17). He even kept the core of the law, to love God and love neighbor. He never failed to do what was right. As agreed in the CoR, Christ would keep the CoW. He obtained every blessing promised and through the cross took the curses upon Himself for His people (Galatians 3:13).This is the foundation for the CoG. Christ establishes the CoG. The church, His elect are in this covenant, not on the basis of works, like the CoW, but by faith and faith alone, purely His grace. He fulfills the law and only bestows it’s blessings to those with faith. “But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” (Galatians 3:22). Only God will receive glory for their redemption. Old Testament and New Testament saints are both saved on this basis. In the Old, their faith is in the promised Messiah to come and in the New, it is faith in the promised Messiah who has come. All this according to the Divine counsel of God in the CoR. Unlike the CoW, which is premised on law-keeping, the CoG is premised on grace through faith in Christ, gospel. This is why the reformed tradition has held to a law and gospel distinction and not because of Greek dualism, as some theonomists argue. Many of the theonomic leaders (many who are federal visionists) argue that any covenant with God is gracious, that there is one covenant with different administrations. But common to all, the way to distinguish whether one is in the covenant or not is by their faithfulness to the covenant(covenantal objectivity as Wilson stated in his book, Reformed is Not Enough). For them, it is an obedient faith that saves, not a faith evidences itself in works as a result of faith. Men like Andrew Sandlin, teaching fellow at the Ezra Institute, is strong on this point that it is not faith alone that saves, but faithfulness (https://www.ezrainstitute.com/resource-library/podcast/the-why-and-how-of-christian-culture-building-w-andrew-sandlin/; around the 17:00 mark). Because they hold to one covenant, they blend all the covenants together and it results in a CoW that has to be obeyed to be under the lordship of Christ. This is why they repudiate the traditional reform idea of law and gospel. You can see how this practically works itself out in theonomy in the way they describe national faithfulness. A nation who is faithful to the law of God will experience blessing and a nation who is unfaithful to the law of God will fall under it’s curse. This is why they are so forceful in seeing that the law becomes law of the nation and the nation be faithful to the law, so we do not fall under it’s curse. This is nothing other than a CoW! The problem with this is that the only obedience that God accepts is a perfect obedience and no one, believer and unbeliever alike, can produce a perfect obedience. We can only merit the curses of the law. Only Christ has kept the law with a perfect obedience. It is only those who are in Christ who through faith in Christ that get blessed and not cursed. “As it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.’ ‘Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.’ ‘The venom of asps is under their lips.’ ‘Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.’ ‘Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.’ ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’ Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable toGod. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:10–20). So the theonomist’s gospel of Christ is King and He has a law for us to follow is not good news, it is not the gospel. It can only bring curses upon a people. Whereas the biblical gospel is that although we have not kept the law and have merited God’s wrath, God sent a Savior who did keep the law and all who have faith in Him become His people. “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” (Romans 3:21–22). Jesus is King, duh, but He is also a perfect High Priest and mediates perfect reconciliation between God and man, as agreed in the CoR. “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.“ (John 6:37–39). But this is not the only point which theonomist leaders error. They also on what the law is. The Bible has two main laws. First, the mosaic law which was for the people of Israel. The mosaic law had three parts: moral, civil, and ceremonial. We’ll get the moral in a second, but historically, the civil and ceremonial laws are either unique to nation of Israel or fulfilled in Christ. The second law is the moral law, of which the mosaic law is based, core of the mosaic law in it’s morals. The moral law is binding on all men everywhere, at all times. It has it’s place in all covenants because it is a reflection of who God is. The moral law is specifically referenced in Romans 2:14,15, where the Gentiles who do not have the mosaic law, have the moral law inscribed on them, which the conscience bears witness. The reason why you can go up to anyone and show them their sin against a holy God and their need for a Savior is because of the moral law. Another reason I disagree with theonomists is because of two kingdom theology. Theonomists have many misunderstandings about this traditional view of Reformed theology, which was held by the Reformers. Two kingdom teaches the Christian lives in “now and not yet,” a citizen of this present world and the age to come. This impacts how the Christian lives in this world. A Christian will uphold the moral law in the realm of the world, like government. Justice must be done, as mandated by the noahic covenant. As a regenerate man or woman, they can argue from the world around them, sometimes called natural theology (which some theonomists would reject, yet still hold to “creation norms”) or from what God has revealed in Scripture. Christians have done this for centuries and theonomists wrongly accuse two kingdom advocates of ignoring the moral law. Another point of disagreement with theonomists is on the uses of the law. The three uses of the law are summarized in three words: mirror, curb, and guide. First, the mirror. The law has a prominent place in leading us to Christ. “So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.” (Galatians 3:24). It shows us who we are before a holy God and shows us our need for a Savior. It is for believer and unbeliever alike. For the believer, it reminds of our need for Christ. For the unbeliever, it points them to their sin, convicts them of their sin, and makes them seek out mercy from God. The second use, curb, is the civil use. Remember how God told Noah and his descendants to administer justice? It was so man would not revert back to the great prevalence of evil from the pre-flood world. The noahic covenant limits how much evil men can sin. It brings consequence. The law as a curb in the mosaic law guaranteed that the promised Messiah would be born. The law now caps man’s sinfulness so that the gospel may go forward. This principle applies to believer and unbeliever alike. The third and final use of the law is a guide. It is for only Christians in the new covenant. How do Christians learn what holiness is? From examining the moral law. For the Christian, it is now a delight (Psalm 119). It is a rejection of this third use that makes a person an antinomian. Theonomists will often blend the second and third use of the law to be able to justify their discipling of the nations. This is a confusion of categories common to legalists. There are many parallels between theonomy and the social justice movement (ie. CRT). Social justice and theonomy both desire to reform social structures. Both have a form of a moral law to reform society. Both are seeking political power to enforce their politics. Both have an utopia that they are working towards. Both are very horizontal in their orientation. Both see the church as a kind of mini messiahs to usher in the final state. And both downplay the gospel, the great commission as the mission of the church. Clearly both are social reform movements that could only develop after the social reformer of our time, Karl Marx. I want to quickly look at just how different theonomist interpret key “theonomic” proof texts. Often when they quote these verses, they read them with a theonomic lenses. “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” (Psalm 2:12) Notice that this is a message from the Psalmist pleading with the peoples of the earth to seek mercy from Christ and ends with a beatitude for all who take refuge in Him. It is not a command for us to go out and impose God’s law, lest they be trampled by God. You see the heart of God who will judge they world, but still is calling men, the very objects of His wrath, to be reconciled to Himself. Look at another favorite, Psalm 110:1:“The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” Who is it that makes Christ’s enemies His footstool? God, not the church. Theonomist interpret this passage as though the church is to bring all under Christ’s dominion. Look at the Lord’s Prayer now. “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10). Theonomists will emphasize the word “earth” and say that we have a theonomic mission to do here on earth. Back it up there. Jesus is teaching us to petition God to act. It is not a prescription for us to act to advance the kingdom, but rather a petition for the God of the universe to see to it that His will is done on earth, as it clearly is in heaven, for Him to advance His kingdom. And ultimately we see that at the end of the Bible in Revelation the new Jerusalem coming down from God (Revelation 21:1-2). He delivers the kingdom. Theonomists have it flipped putting the emphasis on what we do rather than what God does. If Christians were to examine what theonomist teach from the Bible in context, it would disarm the fad overnight. 4. What is the eschatology you ascribe to and how does that contribute to yourunderstanding of theonomy? It is probably best to describe me as an amillennialist not really holding any strong position on eschatology, except I know that Christ will return for His bride and to judge the living and the dead. Some have joked calling it a pan-millennial, meaning it will all panout. Some years ago, Paul Washer said, to paraphrase, when Christ returns we will all know how it happened, but as for the gospel of Jesus Christ, we will spend an eternity of eternities to plummet the depths of the gospel and we will not even begin to fully comprehend it at after an eternity. That is why I find theonomy such a nuisance. Here is an illustration. You buy your child the world’s greatest toy and you bring it home, take it out of the box and what occupies the child’s attention? The box. Likewise, theonomy is so caught up in the here and now of politics, the “discipling the nations” as they call it. They forget that the church has the great commission, to proclaim the gospel of reconciliation between God and men (2 Corinthians 5:19-20). If theonomy becomes the definition of evangelical, the church will become known more for our law-keeping and advocacy rather than known as a people redeemed by the gospel. It is a form of mission drift. So let’s grant theonomic postmillennialism for a moment (although theonomic postmillennialism is different from historic postmillennialism). What if theonomy succeeds? They are successful at implementing their social reforms and the nations achieve an outward righteousness to the law, is this the kingdom of God? Did God regenerate their hearts because of their obedience? No and no. No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born-again (John 3:3). My fear is if the theonomist succeed at putting the law on the books, they will create a moral society who will believe that the way to experience the blessings of God is to keep the law of God. Was that not what the Pharisees were trying to do? The postmillennial hope of William Carey and Andrew Fuller drew from men coming to Christin faith, not conformity to the law. Theonomic postmillennialism is an empty shell of promise. 5. Is theonomy a false teaching that must be marked, avoided and called out publically or can there be unity among congregations on this issue? If unity can be done in what ways can a congregational member like yourself facilitate that? I don’t know if I can broad-brush all theonomists the same. Followers are different from leaders. There are different camps within theonomy. Theonomy is still new in church history (newer than dispensationalism) and seems to attract other deviant theologies, like federal vision. I think those who are redefining the gospel as law and the law as gospel have crossed the line into false teaching. As for the average congregant who rightly and genuinely laments about the way their nation is going and then hears the theonomist’s promise of what the law can do for the nation, is different. I am sympathetic with them being swept away in the latest evangelical fad. I would encourage them to read the puritans and others in the actual reformed tradition, and not just the latest authors who claim to be reformed. Do a study on the covenants of the Bible, learn what makes one a covenant of works or covenant of grace. HeartCry just put out a small videoseries on 1689 federalism (https://heartcrymissionary.com/curriculum/series/the-progress-of-redemption/). Listen to Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Romans (https://www.mljtrust.org/free-sermons/book-of-romans/). Read Luther on Galatians. Read Coxe and Owen, From Adam to Christ. Set your heart on studying the gospel of Jesus Christ and you will find that it never stops. If you are in the theonomist camp, you probably are wrestling with your assurance based on your law-keeping. I want to give you comfort. Your law-keeping can only condemn you and cannot merit you salvation. However, Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection saves us. He lived the life we couldn’t live. He perfectly kept the law in word, thought, and deed. When we put our faith in Him and His finished work, God imputes His righteousness to us. God gives us a new heart and new desires. We turn from our sin to serve our risen Lord. Salvation is found outside ourselves in Christ. It is not found in my perfecting of self for Christ. When you study Romans 5-8, you realize your union to Christ is dependent not on you, but on Christ’s grip on you. It has a sanctifying effect on your life (John 17:17). The Bible is not a manual on cleaning yourself to present yourself acceptable to God. Rather it is about Christ and His saving work on behalf of sinners. Then when you read the Old Testament, whether it’d be the mosaic law or the Psalms, and you realize how Christ has fulfilled the law and that the Bible is all about Jesus, you experience the life that only Christ can give. You love Jesus more. He becomes precious to you and the gospel comes to life as a daily reality as you continue to look to Christ. You will find that unity in the church comes from our love for Christ as revealed in Scripture aswe work together not to reform society, but to present Christ in the gospel! “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and seeyou or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mindstriving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents.This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God.”(Philippians 1:27–28). You will find a sweetness in you fellowship when it is centered around Christ and proclaiming the gospel, and not trying to be another lobby group in Ottawa 6. What laws should a country have? If someone in your congregation was a politician whatlaws would you expect them to advocate for in their town, province or nation? What laws was Noah commanded to uphold in the noahic covenant? The moral law. We have two ways of knowing the moral law: in general revelation and in special revelation. We can rely on both creation and Scripture to explain the moral law. From moral law, we administer justice. There are limitations to the justice we can administer. As creatures, we can only deliver approximate justice in this world. Only God can administer exact justice. For example, if someone takes a life, nothing we do can bring that life back. Only God can do that. So even aswe administer justice, there is a longing within ourselves for the eschatological justice that only God can deliver. I will even go as far as Jesus to say that there are limits to the mosaic law in how it administers justice. Jesus in correcting the Pharisees on marriage acknowledge that Moses permitted divorce because of the hardness of their hearts (Matthew 19:7-8). So there is a limit to how creatures administer justice, which is why we need the God-man Jesus all the more. If someone was in my congregation was a politician, there is nothing prohibiting them from doing so They can do the work consistent with what God has revealed of Himself from nature and Scripture. As two kingdom theology rightly teaches, they are doing the Lord’s work in their vocation, even in the common realm. Yet it is the message of the gospel as it changes souls that advances the kingdom of God. That’s where a lot of confusion with theonomy lies. 7. All theology and doctrine should change how we live our life. As we come to the end of the interview, can you share with me how your stance on theonomy changes how you live your life? Theology, Scripture, the gospel, Christ, changes everything. It changes the way how I relate to the world and how the world relates to me. I am now a citizen of the heavenly kingdom in the midst of a rebellion. Jesus relates to me differently and so I must relate to the world differently as well. Consider John 17:14–15, from Jesus’ High Priestly prayer, praying on behalf of His church: “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.” We the church have been equipped by God with the Word of God. From it we know the basics of the law and the gospel. We are here promised to be hated by the world because we belong to Christ. Times of peace are the exception to the rule for the Christian. We are still in the world, yet not of the world. These words are consistent with Jesus saying to Pilate, “my kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36) or Jesus to the thief on the cross, “today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:42-43). Jesus’ promise is despite the hatred of the world, His church will persevere, His church cannot be stopped. It is not due to the character of the bride, but because of the determination of the Christ. Christ’s kingdom and Satan’s kingdom are along side each other till the end of the age, but Christ will not let His church fail (Matthew 16:18) and Christ will establish His kingdom at the end of the age. We are Christ’s ambassadors in a foreign land charged with the gospel, the message of reconciliation, that men can be reconciled back to God through Christ. “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:18,20).Like Daniel, who was not a Babylonian, we worked the good of the earthly empire. Notice Daniel never did a theonomic takeover, legislated away pagan worship nor impose the Jewish law over the Babylonian Empire. He was just faithful where he was and it sometimes cost him. Our faith will cost us something. So wherever God has called you, whether in your families, jobs, even government, act as what your King expects of you and be willing to suffer for it. We are promised to persevere in this world by the grace of Christ, till He delivers the kingdom. We are now called to be ambassadors of Christ. Paul speaks of a message we proclaim, not imposing a kingdom upon this earthly kingdom (if we make the gospel into something we do, are we not returning to the same error as the emerging church of the 2000s?). What is that message? The message of how God reconciled man back to God. Next verse, 2 Corinthians 5:21:“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” That’s the gospel! The gospel is about CHRIST and HIS finished work that we proclaim. It is not about us and what we do. It is through this message, that the world finds foolish (1 Corinthians1:18). Just as how God spoke in creation, the message of the gospel is what brings people into God’s kingdom. No swords, no guns, no legislation, no government party, no reform will bring people into the kingdom, except that they would be born-again, the new birth (John 3:3). We are simply Christ’s witnesses (Acts 1:8). Theonomists and social justice warriors will accuse anyone who is not on their social reform program as not proclaiming a “wholistic” gospel. This is a misnomer. The gospel does have broader implications, such as the promises and commands of the new covenant, historically called broad gospel. The core of the gospel, the strict gospel, is Christ and what He has done. Their “wholistic” gospel of cultural transformation is taking secondary effects of the gospel the main thing. In making the gospel “wholistic”, they actually miss the gospel and redefine the gospel. Theonomists may be looking for a quick-fix gospel, a law to reorder society. If we proclaim actual gospel, there is no promise of an earthly victory here and now on earth. That is because salvation is monergistic and something that we cannot manipulate, dependant upon God regenerating the hearts of sinners (John 3:8). Jesus said, “I will build my church” (Matthew16:8). Gospel work then starts on our knees petitioning the God of the universe to save our neighbor.“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’” (Romans 10:14–15).What does the great commission look like practically? Is it phoning or emailing your MP or MLA, telling them to reflect your Christian values, and to participate in a rally, OR is it to walkover to your now permanent resident Muslim neighbor, imploring them of who Christ is and showing them how they are not saved by keeping their law? The great commission is not political action. It is making Christ and His finished work known. The great commission is not “discipling” the nations, it is where we make disciples from the nations. The great commission takes a church and intentional discipleship. The mission of the church is what it always has been the great commission and not a theonomic takeover of culture. The church must preach Christ!
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