Highlight: Phil Johnson & Theonomy

The Daily Wire Clip and the Misrepresentation of Theonomy

There was an article in the Daily Wire, a controversial clip of Pastor John MacArthur had his critics pouncing. That's the, uh, uh, turns out it was edited. So it was a clip of, uh, uh, brother, Dr. John MacArthur.

Uh, it was, uh, edited and, uh, somebody shared it. Uh, this edited clip got a lot of people, uh, in a tizzy. Turns out it was edited and out of context. And so there's an article on the Daily Wire regarding that.

We wanted to zero in on a portion of the, uh, article on the Daily Wire about said clip. And, uh, it's a quote from, uh, Phil Johnson. Uh, if you don't know who Phil Johnson is, he's a, he's Dr. John MacArthur's right-hand man.

I love Phil Johnson. Uh, I have, I have learned so much from Phil Johnson. Uh, but he said something in the article regarding the clip. And, uh, here's what it says.

I'll give you the quote.

Um, he's quote, this is, uh, Phil. He says, uh, MacArthur is certainly not advocating the theonomic notion that Christians today should commandeer governments in order to force Christianity on the world, Johnson told the Daily Wire.

So that's, that's interesting. MacArthur is certainly not advocating the theonomic notion that Christians today should commandeer governments in order to force Christianity in the world. Um, when we read that, we were like,.

Which theonomy is he talking about?

What?

Phil, brother, I love you. You are, you're a sharper man and, and, and a great godly man. Uh, better than I'll ever be. I mean that you're just amazing. Um, but Phil, what do you mean? Um, no, no theonomist would teach something like that.

I don't, I've never read anything from a theonomist that would say something even remotely like that. And I've never heard a theonomist say anything like that. Uh, that's inconsistent with everything I've ever read.

Um, so I would ask the question first to, to brother Phil, I would say, Phil, what, what book did you read where you learned that like that's theonomy? Because that's the opposite of, of anything that I would hear a theonomist say.

And so I guess we need to first do this, Joe, for those who are new to this discussion, what is theonomy? And, um, and then we can engage a bit with Phil's, uh, quote here.

The Meaning of Theonomy and the Law of God

Yeah.

Well, of course the word theonomy just means God's law, uh, contrasted with autonomy, self-law. And so we would say the, the theonomist would say that, uh, there is a fundamental choice and, and I would say that the reformation or the reform tradition right through the Puritans and to many of the early evangelicals would have argued that there is a choice between, uh, theonomy and autonomy between our submission to the law word of God in its totality and being a law unto ourselves.

And Jeff, in your earlier, um, uh, monologue about the, uh, the, the, the, the issue of sovereignty and neutrality, you know, when we looked at something like a bill C4, you see the mask torn off the idea of neutrality.

And actually what you see there is a source of sovereignty, um, being the ultimate sovereignty being placed in the state and behind that, the divinity concept. And of course, a sovereign gives law. Uh, and that is the, that's, that's part of the nature of, of government, ultimate government.

And so of course, God, who is the, the ruler of all Kings first, uh, uh, revelation chapter one, verse five, uh, he's the ruler of the Kings of the earth. He gives his law. So theonomy just means God's law.

And it's a view within, uh, Christian ethics with a long and rich tradition in the, in the history of the church. It's a, it's, um, it's not a, a political philosophy that we have to, to, to, uh, go beyond, uh, a theonomy as, uh, uh, the importance and the centrality of God's law to start developing a distinctly Christian view of government and the state.

Um, theonomy is a view in Christian ethics. It's concerns God's law and it's abiding relevance. The decalogue, the summarized there for us in the, in the 10 commandments, and then the applications of the decalogue, which we find in what we can call case law in the Bible that the apostle Paul, for example, applies multiple times.

A couple of prominent examples would be his teaching to children about obeying their parents, because this is the first commandment with a promise that you may live long in the earth, he says. So he adapts that from live long in the land to live long in the earth and where he also applies the, uh, the case law of not muzzling an ox while it treads out the grain, and he applies that law to making sure those who labor in the word of God in the church are properly paid.

So, uh, we see the, both the decalogue and the case law being applied. Uh, we see this affirmed in terms of its civil use, uh, the relevance of God's law for not just our personal lives or the life of the church, but for the society as a whole in first Timothy chapter one, where Paul talks about a lawful use of the law, uh, for those who are lawbreakers.

And he specifically says this is in accordance with my gospel, my gospel. So we don't make some radical artificial separation of law and gospel. That's a scholastic, uh, uh, division that doesn't belong in a reformed understanding of God's word.

Um, we recognize that the gospel is both, uh, blood. Uh, the covenant is both blood and law. Um, in fact, when you look at what the covenant is, the new covenant, uh, Hebrews eight and Jeremiah 31, it's very clear that it's about the location of the law.

Um, you will not say to your neighbor, no, the Lord will each will know him from the least to the greatest because God's law is going to be written upon the heart is the, is the essence of that. And that's repeated in Hebrews chapter eight.

So God's coven with us in the good news, the gospel of the new coven involves both law and blood as all of God's, um, covenants have, as they come to their fullness and ultimate fulfillment in the newer covenant, in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, um, the gospel involves law and theonomy means God's law and giving our attention to the law word of God in the complete, in the fullness of God's revelation, not just in the decalogue and in the mosaic, uh, uh, passages and portions of decalogue and case law, but also in the, uh, the wisdom literature where, for example, um, a King King Solomon is teaching his son in the book of Proverbs about obedience to God's law.

And of course, in the prophets who spend their time calling God's people back to obedience to the law of God, um, for which they have been, uh, being chastised and disciplined by the Lord, or have even gone into exile because of their rebellion and God warned them, of course, even with respect to Canaan, that if they went into the land, if they were given the land and, uh, committed the same lawlessness as the Canaanites, the land would spew them out as well.

And, uh, and so we see the centrality actually of God's law for the people of God, right through God's revelation and right through the life of the church. So theonomy is about honoring God's instruction, the Torah, God's law, his instruction, his teaching for us, not as the source of life, which is in Christ and his redemptive work through the Holy spirit, but as the way of life, this is the way walk in it.

That's, that's really what theonomy means.

The Kingdom, the New Covenant, and the Law Written on the Heart

Right. Right.

And, uh, that was beautiful, brother. So it's interesting too, because we can have this discussion in terms of the law being a constituent element of the new covenant promised in the old Testament and what God was going to do in the Messiah's kingdom and the blessings that he would pour out on the world with God's Torah, his instruction, his law.

Whether you look at Isaiah 42, which was the section that I read at the beginning of the show today. Um, God talking about, he's going to establish justice in the earth. He's not going to grow faint or weary.

So obviously that's a process. It's not something that's going to drop out of history, boom, and just obliterate everything. It's a process in history of this servant who brings it about in the world, and it says the coastlands are waiting for his law.

Uh, you have the promise in Isaiah chapter two of the nation stream streaming up to God's mountain, and then the Torah going forth from the people of God, from Zion, you have, of course, the passages quoted from, from brother Booth there.

We talk about Jeremiah 31, the promise in a new covenant, the location of the law is going to be inward, but there's all these elements of promise and the Messiah's kingdom, uh, in the old Testament about that coming new covenant and the kingdom he was going to establish that include the law, the law of God.

And what's interesting as you look, Joe brings it up here in his book is marvelous in the mission of God. You see this so much, so many examples of this, but when you look in the, in historic Christian tradition, what we're describing here, what we're talking about here is something that is very much in the stream of the Puritans.

It's very much in the stream of the Huguenots and the Christians that were here not very long ago in the communities that they established and what they were appointed to. I always point it out because I think it is a perfect example in the formation of just this nation.

I want you to hear this because it's an important thing to consider when we talk about what we're dealing with in our courts today, our first Supreme court justice, John Jay explicitly quotes from the case law examples in the law of God, uh, as this first Supreme court justice in this nation, that's, that's a far cry from where we're at today and the case law system that we have today in this country, uh, was from the old Testament.

That was the model. It was, it was, it came from. So this idea of a theonomic view of ethics, the Christian theonomic view of ethics in terms of the responsibility of government and order and all those things, isn't something that arose in the last 30 years or 50 years or a hundred years, this is an historic Christian tradition.

You're going to find it going all the way back, back, back, back, back, back, because here it is. The great commission says that Christ has all authority. This is 2000 years ago today in heaven and on earth.

And on that basis, go therefore go and do what to the nations, disciple the nations, baptize them, and then do what afterwards teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. So you teach them to obey.

So the great commission has always been when the nations disciple them under the authority of Christ, he has that rule and authority today and teach them to obey Jesus. And so this isn't a controversial perspective.

Gospel Proclamation, Christ's Authority, and the Rejection of Neutrality

However, very important in this quote from, uh, brother Phil, uh, he says, I'm going to make sure I quote it correctly here because it's important. He says, MacArthur is certainly not advocating the theonomic notion that Christians today should commandeer governments in order to force Christianity in the world.

Now, when I read that, I thought to myself, okay, that is the opposite.

Sounds like Islam.

That's the opposite of everything I've ever heard. Any theonomic, uh, Christian say, um, for us, it is always about the gospel. You proclaim the excellencies of Jesus, the Lordship of Christ. You proclaim his God, his gospel, what he accomplished in his perfect life and death and resurrection.

You proclaim that to the world. You call the world to repent and to believe, and that's the message. And through that, God uses that. It uses the power of the gospel to actually bring people to life, to change their hearts and their minds and to indwell them so that now they love God's law.

Ezekiel 36 promises that God is going to, in the new covenant, he's going to put his spirit within people and he's going to cause them to observe his statutes. That's the goal, but that goal actually gets accomplished through the prophetic ministry of the church and the proclamation of the gospel.

And the question that I always ask, and when people are confused about this, is this, are there image bearers of God in the legislature?

Yes.

Good.

Uh, is Jesus the ruler of the kings of the earth today, as is stated in Matthew 28 and, and Revelation chapter one, is he the ruler of the kings of the earth today?

Yes.

Are they called to obey Jesus today?

Great.

What is his law to them that they must yield to and repent of sin and trust in Christ for? What is that? So does the law of Christ as his law word, and does his gospel go to those image bearers of God in the legislature?

And if he's the ruler of the kings of the earth today, that's what's happening right now, then are they required to obey the son or they'll perish as Psalm chapter two says, because the ends of the earth belong to Jesus, according to Psalm chapter two, and the father warns the kings of the earth to obey the son or they'll perish.

So that's the question. Is it true or not? And this idea that the theonomic notion is that Christians should commandeer governments to impose Christianity is the farthest thing from anything I've ever heard from anybody who says that they are theonomic in their perspective of ethics.

It's all about the gospel, but that gospel goes everywhere and every person to every child, to every adult, to every person in the legislature, to everyone in education, to everyone in the media, it goes everywhere and the world is called to repent and believe the gospel and to obey Jesus.

What's the ultimate goal of the gospel? According to Jesus, Matthew 28, 18 through 20, ultimate goal, win the nations, baptize them and do what? Teach them to obey, right? That's the goal. And so how do we do that?

Do we do it with avoiding governments as though government is not obligated to obey Jesus? They are. Do we do it by avoiding governments thinking, well, that's just a realm Jesus has nothing to do with?

That's foolish. He says all authority in heaven and earth is mine. Do we avoid the government thinking that that's actually a neutral zone where you can play neutrality? That goes against everything Jesus taught in the scriptures teach about knowledge, about wisdom, about the authority of Christ, and in fact, Jesus says, whoever is not with me is against me.

If you're not with Christ, you're against Christ. There's no neutrality with Jesus. So I want to say to brother Phil, that this is not accurate, brother. Not by any degree. It's not accurate at all. We want to see image bearers of God everywhere, including in government to come to Jesus and to obey him.

We would never, you can't save the world through law. There's salvation through faith in Christ alone. It's by God's grace. It's because of his mercy. So you can't impose Christianity via law. It can only be something that God does sovereignly by his grace through the human heart is what God accomplishes.

So the idea that we can impose Christianity through the force of law is just not in fact the case. It's just not true. And so I would encourage some study in this area. And I don't mean that in any way to brother Phil, to be denigrating to him or to his mind, he is a sharp, sharp man.

I would encourage him studying this area because this quote demonstrates that you don't really know this field of ethics and what theonomists actually believe, because this is just inaccurate.