About this episode
Many who loudly oppose theonomy nevertheless selectively affirm God’s law when it aligns with their preferences, enforcing Old Testament commands such as prohibitions on cross-dressing, bestiality, or sexual immorality while denying the continuing authority of the law as a whole. This inconsistency exposes the flaw in the claim that only laws repeated in the New Testament are binding, since Scripture itself does not support a rigid separation between “moral” and “civil” law, nor does grace nullify God’s revealed standards. By rejecting theonomy in principle yet reintroducing biblical laws piecemeal, such critics become covert theonomists while functionally practicing autonomy placing themselves as judges over God’s law. As Cornelius Van Til made clear, the real issue is ultimate authority: theonomy, submission to God’s law, versus autonomy, self-law rooted in Genesis 3:5. These two positions are irreconcilable, representing Christianity versus humanism, and to sit in judgment over God’s law is ultimately to surrender the sovereignty of the triune God.
#Theonomy #Autonomy #BiblicalLaw #ChristianWorldview #Authority #Rushdoony #Chalcedon #GodsLaw
Get every episode summarized
Each time CR101 Radio - Podcast Network publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.
Email me new episodesFree for 3 shows. No card needed.
Transcript ready
46 searchable segments. Every word is indexed and playable.
Full transcript
CR101 Radio - Podcast Network — Covert Theonomists. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.
C-R101 Radio dot com. Podcast and more. Thus, a law I find strictly enforced in many churches where the pastor reels against the enemy is due to an army chapter 22 verse 5. The women shall not wear that thing which pertinent unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment, where all that do so are abomination unto the Lord, ey God. The law is not repeated in the New Testament, and thus it does not meet the quote-test end quote of the anti-nomians that only laws repeated in the New Testament or binding on Christians.
The law against bestiality, Exodus chapter 22 verse 19, Leviticus chapter 18 verse 23, is not repeated in the New Testament. Why then is it observed? It is clearly a civil as well as moral law. For that matter, if any civil law is a moral, it surely cannot be law and God's sight. The distinction between civil and moral law is not biblical. Homosexuality is clearly condemned in both old and new testament. Homosexuals declare that such texts are not invalid because grace supposedly invalidates the law. The point is by now clear, the opponents of theonomy affirm law after law and the Old Testament. They are as a hundred and one points covert theonomists. Their position is an awkward and untenable one because having rejected the law and principal, they sneak it back in piecemeal. There is, however, another and more serious consideration.
Dr. Goliath Vantil has stated it very simply in declaring that the choice is between theonomy and autonomy. Theonomy, theos, God, nomos, law and belief in and submission to God's law cannot be reconciled with autonomy, or to self, nomos, law, self-law. Autonomy is the logical development of Genesis chapter 3 verse 5, every man as his own God, choosing, determining or making his own law and deciding what is good and evil for himself. Theonomy and autonomy cannot be reconciled. They represent Christianity versus humanism. The covert theonomists are actual humanists because they set enjudgments on God's law and decide which laws are right in their own eyes. Such a position is a surrender of the sovereignty of the triune God.
More episodes
More from CR101 Radio - Podcast Network
Trick Questions
CR101 Radio - Podcast Network
Not by Bread Alone
CR101 Radio - Podcast Network
How to be a Failure - Part 3: Worry
CR101 Radio - Podcast Network
The Revival of Paganism in the Green Movement
CR101 Radio - Podcast Network