| How to Become a Practicing Theonomist |
November 30, 2017 |
Combining the Westminster Larger Catechism's exposition of the Ten Commandments with "The Twelve Steps" of Alcoholics Anonymous provides a surprising and effective program for developing Theonomic Virtue.
Here are the steps in a nutshell:
It is perfectly Biblical and proper to speak of "the Law and the Prophets," where "the Law" speaks of the first five books of the Bible, also known as "the Pentateuch."
But it is also Biblical to speak of every verse in the Bible as "law." Rushdoony spoke of "the Law-Word of God."
Every verse in the Bible is the Word of God. and God is our Sovereign, and our Lawgiver, and it is appropriate to give due reverence and obedience to everything our Sovereign says.
A great example of this reverence for the Law-Word of God is in the Westminster Standards. In their exposition of the 10 Commandments, they show that "law" and "sins" and "duties" are found in every portion of Scripture, not just "the Law" (that is, the Pentateuch). Even the titles of Psalms impose divine obligations on us, according to the Westminster Standards, and so they are "law." Here are a few examples of how "law" is found in every kind of verse, even "mere" questions:
Understanding the Rhetoric of the Law-Word of God
I've been accused of "worshiping a book" rather than "knowing Jesus."
God's Law in some sense can function as a substitute for God Himself:
What does it really mean to "know Jesus?"
What Does it Mean to "Know" the Lord?
Rules for the Right Understanding of the Ten Commandments -- It isn't just 10 laws and you're done.
The Westminster Standards (brief intro)
The Larger Catechism asks two questions for each one of the Ten Commandments:
- What are the duties required by this commandment?
- What are the sins prohibited by this commandment?
The Catechism finds answers to these questions throughout the Bible, not just in the Ten Commandments themselves (Exodus 20:1-17), and not just in the pages of "The Book of the Covenant" (Exodus. 21-23), or in the pages of "the law" (the Pentateuch).
The Catechism will assert that "XYZ is a duty required or a sin prohibited," and then attach a "proof-text" from Bible book/verse 123. Two questions must be asked:
- Is XYZ really (Biblically) a sin or a duty?
- Maybe it is, but does prooftext 123 prove this? (If not, maybe another prooftext, from book/verse 345, does in fact prove that XYZ is a sin or a duty.)
Here are examples of the sins and prooftexts for the 6th and 8th commandments:
Chapter 22 of the Westminster Confession of Faith is on Oaths and Vows. We will return to this in a minute.
We are all (or should be) recovering non-Theonomists.
The 4th Step of A.A.'s 12 Steps is to take a "Fearless and Searching Moral Inventory"
This is a secularization of two features of The Westminster Standards
- Rules for the Right Understanding of the Ten Commandments -- Tells us how to find God's Law in every area of our lives
- The Exposition of the Fifth Commandment, which says that "father and mother" include all authorities, such as teacher, employer, prison warden, etc. It also includes duties which authorities have to their subordinates. It also includes duties equals have to equals. In short, not just "father and mother" are included in the Fifth Commandment, but every human being on the face of the earth. "Honor all men" (1 Peter 2:17).
So the path involves taking each sin, and asking, "Did I commit this particular sin against
- a superior?
- an inferior?
- an equal?
We could (if we were serious) compile a list of all our superiors, inferiors, and equals, and then ask, for each duty or sin in the exposition of the Ten Commandments, "Did I commit this sin against this person?"
- Who have I offended?
- Who has been harmed by my wrongdoing?
- Who has stumbled over my anger and my pride?
- Who has been misled by my faithlessness and unbelief?
Create a matrix by listing the people you know down the side, and then the sins across the top. Ten people and ten sins means 100 questions to ask yourself. "Did I commit this sin against this person?" If there are 25 duties and 25 sins listed in the Larger Catechism for each commandment, that's 500 laws, and 5,000 questions you could ask yourself. No need to be so rigorously systematic, but it shows there's plenty to think about and work on.
Step 9 of the 12 steps is to "Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others." I've always thought Bill Gothard had good advice on making amends.
If you were to list 30 or so of the most important doctrines of Scripture, you probably wouldn't list "Oaths and Vows." But out of 33 chapters in the Westminster Confession of Faith, the whole of chapter 22 is devoted to this subject.
It is a part of the Biblical concept of "Meditation."
It is part of the Biblical process of making amends.
Many of the Psalms are vows.
- "Today I will do XYZ"
- "My eyes stay awake throughout the night to meditate in Thy Word." (Psalm 119:148) (If this is not a "vow," then it is a misstatement of fact.)
Vows can turbo-charge your practice of Theonomy