When I look back on my earlier life, I see the converse is also true. As I first stepped out of the closet in the 1990s, I made a conscious decision to ignore natural law. Once I made that choice, I could . . . Continue reading →
Natural Law
Our Fundamentalist Founders?
The interweb is a funny thing. One never knows what, at any given moment, one will discover. This morning I stumbled on a discussion involving David Harsanyi editor at one of my favorites, The Federalist, over John Locke (1632–1704), God, and natural . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 91: What Are Good Works? (1)
he objectively, clearly revealed moral law as the baseline for Christian ethics is essential to Christian living and Christian liberty. James calls it “the law of liberty” (James 1:25) because it frees us from the tyranny of human opinion. It does not answer every question (it does not intend or claim to answer every question) but it is an essential starting place. What must a Christian do in response to God’s grace and in union with Christ? Love God with all his faculties and his neighbor as himself. Continue reading →
Heidelberg 91: What Are Good Works? (2)
The source, fountain of good works is true faith. By using this expression, the catechism deliberately takes us back to Heidelberg 21, where true faith is defined and to Heidelberg 60 which are among the several places where true faith is said to be the sole instrument (sola fide) of justification and salvation. True faith is also the instrument of union and communion with Christ and it is the headwaters of the believer’s new, Spirit-wrought life in Christ. In other words, true faith is essential to good works. Continue reading →
Heidelberg 103: The Christian Sabbath (1)
If there was a time when the church needed to stop its business, to rest, to worship, and to set aside time for the care of the poor in their midst, that time is now. At no time in its history has . . . Continue reading →
Franciscus Junius On Natural Law And The Mosaic Law
Moreover, the law of Moses is an example of the natural law, most suitably expressing the common notions of nature endowed by natural law. For the principles and conclusions of the natural law, that is, those common notions of nature, are perfectly . . . Continue reading →
Johannes Althusius (1557–1638): A Brief Introduction To A Pioneering Reformed Social Theorist
Introduction We seem to live in a Malthusian age, i.e., an age of increasing scarcity or perhaps fear of scarcity, where concern over how to divide an economic (and environmental) pie of limited size (called a “zero sum game”) has replaced the . . . Continue reading →
William Perkins On General Equity
But touching other nations and specially Christian Commonwealths in these days, the case is otherwise. Some are of the opinion that the whole judicial law is wholly abolished and some again run to the other extreme, holding that the judicial laws bind . . . Continue reading →
Social Media Testifies To The Covenant Of Works
In Colossians 2:8 Paul warned the Colossians Christians not to be taken captive by unbelieving ways of thinking (philosophies) nor by “the stoicheia (στοιχεῖα) of the world.” The noun stoicheia is usually translated with something like “elemental principles” or the like. That . . . Continue reading →
Zanchi: The Decalogue Binds Christians Insofar As It Agrees With Natural Law
Hieronymus Zanchius (Operum, Tom. iv. lib. i. c. 11), Maintains at large, and by several arguments, that we Christians have nothing to do with the moral precepts, as they were given to the Israelites by Moses; but only in so far as . . . Continue reading →
Canons Of Dort (27): The Reformed Distinguish Law And Gospel
When we think of the Synod of Dort and their rulings (canons) against the Remonstrants (Arminians) we tend to think about the doctrine of sin or the doctrines of unconditional grace, election, and the like but there were structural, subterranean issues at . . . Continue reading →
What Is At Stake In The “Gender” Debate?
Will Gnosticism Become The State Religion?
What is at stake here is much more than the right of an individual to free self-expression or an employer’s freedom of religion to hold and act on such “stereotypes.” Since everyone in the workplace of that individual employee will be asked . . . Continue reading →
Calvin Rejected Theonomy In Favor Of Natural Law
I would have preferred to pass over this matter in utter silence if I were not aware that here many dangerously go astray. For there are some who deny that a commonwealth is duly framed which neglects the political system of Moses, . . . Continue reading →
Ursinus Opposed Theonomy And Taught Natural Law
To what extent has Christ abrogated the Law, and to what extent is it still in force? The ordinary and correct answer to this question is, that the ceremonial and judicial law, as given by Moses, has been abrogated in as far . . . Continue reading →
It Was The Anabaptist Karlstadt Not The Confessional Protestants Who Taught Theonomy
The [New Testament] does not introduce any new laws about the civil estate, but commands us to obey the existing laws, whether they were formulated by heathen or by others, and in this obedience to practice love. It was mad of Carlstadt . . . Continue reading →
Ussher Rejected Theonomy And Explained General Equity
What call you the Judicial Law? That wherein God appointed a Form of Politick and Civil Government of the Common-wealth of the Jews: Which therefore is ceased with the Dissolution of that State, for which it was ordained; saving only in the . . . Continue reading →
Polanus: We Are Released From the Judicial Laws Of Moses But Not From Natural Law
THUS MUCH CONCERNING INWARD FREEDOM: NOW CONCERNING OUTWARD FREEDOM. The outward freedom, is that which pertaineth to the outward life. And it is called Christian liberty, because it belongeth to Christians only. And that is two fold, freedom from the laws of . . . Continue reading →
Rollock: The Judicial Laws Are Abolished But The Natural Law Remains
It is true, indeed, a prince should be loath to put out that life that God hath put in, and should beware, to judge rashly in capital crimes. It is no small matter to make a crime capital; but if the crime . . . Continue reading →
Gillespie And Piscator: The Natural Law Remains In Force
But how doth it appear that these or any other Judicial Laws of Moses do at all appertain to us, as rules to guide us in like cases? I shall with him who scrupleth this, to read Piscator his Appendix to his . . . Continue reading →
Dickson: Theonomy Is An Error
Quest. IV. Did the Lord by Moses give to the Jews, as a Body Politick, sundry Judicial Laws, which expired together with their state? Yes. Do they oblige any other now, further than the general equity thereof may require. No. Exod. 21. . . . Continue reading →