History
Christian Reconstructionism, Dominion Theology and Theonomy
are not denominations or faith groups. Rather, they are interrelated
beliefs which are followed by members of a variety of Catholic and
Protestant denominations. They have no connection at all to Reconstructionist
Judaism, which is a liberal group within Judaism. Generally speaking:
- Christian Reconstructionism is a belief that society,
particularly in the United States, has seriously degenerated morally
and religiously and must be totally rebuilt to Biblical standards.
- Dominion Theology is derived from Genesis 1:26 of the Hebrew
Scriptures (Old Testament):
"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our
likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of
the air, over the livestock, over all the earth and over all the
creatures that move along the ground.'" (NIV)
Most Christians interpret this verse as meaning that God gave
mankind dominion over the animal kingdom. Dominion theologians believe
that that this verse commands Christians to bring all societies,
around the world, under the rule of the Word of God.
- Theonomy (Greek for "God's Law") is the concept
that all of the non-ceremonial laws given to Moses and recorded in the
Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Hebrew Scriptures) are binding on
people of all nations forever.
The term Reconstructionism has been used to refer to various
combinations of the preceding three terms. This type of confusion is
common in the field of religion. Many words such as Christian,
Fundamentalist, Occult, New Age, Reconstructionism, Unitarian etc.
have been assigned so many different interpretations by different groups
in different eras that they are almost meaningless.
Its most common form, Theonomic Reconstructionism, represents
one of the most extreme forms of Fundamentalist Christianity thought. It
originated in the United States from the Reformed or Calvinistic
tradition. Its goal is the peaceful conversion of the United States
government to a theocracy, which is based on the Mosaic Law of the Hebrew
Scriptures. They intend to achieve this by using the freedom of religion
in the US to train a generation of children in private Christian religious
schools. Later, their graduates will be charged with the responsibility of
creating a new Bible-based political, religious and social order. One of
the first tasks of this order will be to eliminate religious freedom.
Their eventual goal is to achieve the "Kingdom of God" in
which the entire world is converted to Christianity. They feel that the
power of God's word will bring about this conversion. No armed force or
insurrection will be needed; in fact, they believe that there will be
little opposition to their plan. People will willingly accept it if it is
properly presented to them.
All religions other than Christianity would be suppressed.
Nonconforming Evangelical, main line and liberal Christian institutions
would no longer be allowed to function. Society would revert to the laws
and punishments of the Hebrew Scriptures. Any person who advocated or
practiced other religious beliefs would be tried for idolatry and
exterminated. Blasphemy, adultery and homosexual behavior would be
criminalized; those found guilty would be executed. To our knowledge, this
is the only religious movement in North America in which many of its
members advocate genocide for followers of minority religions. Ralph Reed,
the executive director of the conservative public policy group the Christian
Coalition has criticized Reconstructionism as "an
authoritarian ideology that threatens the most basic civil liberties of a
free and democratic society."
Leading writers in the movement are:
- Greg L. Bahnsen of the Southern California Center for Christian
Studies
- David Chilton
- Gary DeMar
- Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.
- Gary North of the Institute for Christian Economics. He is a
prolific author.
- Larry Pratt: head of the Gun Owners of America and English
First, a group opposed to non-English speaking immigrants and
bilingual education. Author of "Armed People Victorious"
which documents Guatemalan and Philippine militias and para-military
death squads. Campaign co-chair of the Buchanan presidential campaign
in 1996.
- John Quade
- Rousas John Rushdoony of the Chalcedon Foundation is often
considered the founder of Christian Reconstructionism. Author of Institutes
of Biblical Law.
- Rev. Andrew Sandlin
Beliefs
According to Gary DeMar, a popular Reconstructionist author, the
foundation of Reconstructionism is a unique combination of three Biblical
doctrines:
- Regeneration of the individual, through an intimate relationship
with Christ
- Individuals guiding their lives closely by following a specified
subset of Biblical laws
- Promoting of the world-wide Kingdom of God. 1
Specific beliefs include
- A rejection of Antinomianism: the belief that salvation is
obtained totally through faith and not through performing good works
and living a moral life
- Presuppositionalism: the acceptance on faith that the Bible
is true. They do not attempt to prove that God exists or that
the Bible is true.
- Inerrancy:
the belief that the Bible, as originally written, is totally free of
error
- Postmillennialism:
the belief that Christ will not return to earth until after all
nations in the world have converted to Christianity. This will not
take place for some considerable time; it will not be a painless
transition. Most Fundamentalists and other Evangelists are Premillenialists;
they believe that Christ's return will occur soon.
- The laws contained in the Hebrew Scriptures can be divided into two
classes: moral and ceremonial. Christians are not required to follow
the ceremonial laws, because Jesus has liberated them from that
responsibility. However, all persons must follow the Scripture's moral
law. (Non-reconstructionist Christians generally divide these laws
into three classes: moral, civil and ceremonial law, and generally
believe that most Old Testament laws are no longer binding on
Christians.)
- The laws given by God to the ancient Israelites are all reflections
of God's character, which is unchangeable. The laws were not
tailor-made to meet the unique needs and environment of Israel at the
time. Thus those laws are intended for all nations and all eras,
including the present time.
- The primacy of the Hebrew Scriptures, relative to the Christian
Scriptures (New Testament). All of the Hebrew Scriptures'
non-ceremonial laws are still in force, unless they have been
specifically rescinded or modified by verses in the Christian
Scriptures. "Only if we find an explicit abandonment of an
Old Testament law in the New Testament, because of the historic
fulfillment of the Old Testament shadow, can we legitimately abandon a
detail of the Mosaic law." 12 This is
largely supported by their interpretation of Matthew 5:17:
"Do you think that I have come to abolish the Law or the
Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them."
(NIV)
- Civil laws must match the Bible's moral rules. That is, anything
that is immoral (by their standards) is also to be criminalized.
- The only valid legislation, social theory, spiritual beliefs,
economic theory are those derived from the Bible
- In every aspect of life, there are only two options: God-centered or
man-centered; Theonomy or autonomy. Their political goal is to ban the
latter, everywhere. Each individual, family, church, government and
society must be reconstructed to eliminate sin. Each Christian has the
responsibility to contribute to this conversion.
- They oppose
"inter-religious, inter-racial, and inter-cultural
marriages, in that they normally go against the very community which
marriage is designed to establish."
R.J. Rushdoony, "The Institutes of Biblical Law",
Craig Press, Nutley, NJ (1973), P. 257.
- One of the tasks of Christians is to replace Judaism with
Christianity. According to David Chilton:
"The god of Judaism is the devil. The Jew will not be
recognized by God as one of His chosen people until he abandons his
demonic religion and returns to the faith of his fathers--the faith
which embraces Jesus Christ and His Gospel."
David Chilton, "The Days of Vengeance: An Exposition of the
Book of Revelation", Dominion Press, Ft. Worth, TX (1984), P.
127.
Of course, there exists diversity of opinion within the
Reconstructionist movement. Not all followers will necessarily agree with
the above statements of the movement's leaders
Practices
If they gained control of the US or Canadian federal government, there
would be many changes:
- the use of the death
penalty would be greatly expanded, when the Hebrew Scriptures'
laws are reapplied. People will be executed for adultery, blasphemy,
heresy, homosexual
behavior, idolatry, prostitution, evil sorcery (some translations
say Witchcraft),
etc. Presumably that would be done by stoning people to death or
burning them alive, as the Bible requires.
- an individual who does not accept the Mosaic Law has another god
before them, and is thus guilty of idolatry. That would be punishable
by death. That would include all non-Christians. At the present time,
they total two-thirds of the human race.
- the status of women would be reduced to almost that of a slave as described
in the Hebrew Scriptures.
- it would be logical to assume that the institution of slavery would
be reintroduced, and regulated according to Biblical laws. Fathers
could sell their daughters into slavery.
- Polygamy and the keeping of concubines would be logically permitted
as well.
- The Old Testament "Jubilee Year" system would be
celebrated once more. Every 50 years, the control of all land reverted
to its original owners. This would require every part of North
American land to be returned to the original Aboriginal owners (or
perhaps to those persons of Aboriginal descent who are now
Christians). Hawaii would be given back to the native Hawaiians.
- governments would have balanced budgets
- income tax rates would be eliminated
- the prison system would be eliminated. A system of just restitution
would be established for some crimes. The death penalty would be
practiced for many other crimes. There would be little need for
warehousing of convicted criminals.
- legal abortions would be banished; those found to be responsible for
illegal abortions would be executed.
The reinstitution of slavery appears to be a hot button item among
Reconstructionists. We have received a few negative E-mails which
complained that the movement does not recommend slavery. But we have
received many more Emails from Reconstructionists claiming that legalizing
slavery would be good for North America.
AANEWS reported in 1999-MAR that a recent issue of the Chalcedon
Foundation's monthly journal, the Chalcedon Report,
contained an article by Reconstructionist minister Rev. W.O. Einwechter,
called "Stoning Disobedient Children." He is alleged to
have suggested that capital punishment should be used on "a grown
son who, for whatever reason, has rebelled against the authority of his
parents and will not profit from any of their discipline nor obey their
voice in any thing...The execution of the rebel in view is just, merciful
and preventative..." Einwechter is the vicemoderator of the Association
of
Free Reformed Churches, and a vice president of the National
Reform Association, a group that advocates the inclusion of
Christianity in government. 7,8
Joseph Busche and Bill Curry have written a Tennessee Law Book.
Their intent was to show that laws to implement various Old Testament laws
would sound extremely intrusive today. See: http://www.pitt.edu/~jrbst31/tennessee.html
Conflicts with other Fundamentalist Groups
Theonomic Reconstructionism differs from more common forms of
Fundamentalism in a number of key areas. Reconstructionists:
- emphasize the importance of the Hebrew Scriptures vs. the Christian
Scriptures
- believe that all Christians must attempt to reconstruct society
along ancient Jewish lines
- believe that, once they attain power, they will suppress other
religions through genocide, rather than through proselytizing
- would require each individual to strictly follow the Mosaic law
- believe that Jesus' second coming is in the far future
References
- J. Ligon Duncan, III, "Moses' Law for Modern Government: The
Intellectual and Sociological Origins of the Christian
Reconstructionist Movement", Premise, Vol II, No. 5,
1995-MAY-27. See: http://capo.org/premise/95/may/ssha2.html
- An essay on Christian Reconstructionism with many links is
at: http://abacus.oxy.edu/qrd/www/rrr/recon.html
- The Chalcedon Foundation of Dr. R.J. Rushdoony is
at: http://www.chalcedon.edu
- The Southern California Center for Christian Studies
(founded by the late Dr. G.L. Bahnsen) is at: http://www.cleaf.com/~covenant/
- The Institute for Christian Economics, (ICE)
founded by Dr. Gary North, has many Christian books free for
downloading. See: http://www.freebooks.com/
You need the Acrobat Reader 3.0 program to access these
books. But their site contains a hyperlink to Acrobat for a free
download.
- Political Research Associates is a liberal group
critical of the political right wing. They have an essay on Christian
Reconstructionism at: http://www.publiceye.org/pra/chrisrec.html
They also have an essay on Traditional Values, Racism, and
Christian Theocracy at" gopher://gopher.igc.apc.org:7021/00/publiceye/1
- Christian Worldview: Discipling the Nations... has a
Reconstructionist page at: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1492/.
- Rev. Andrew Sandlin, "The Creed of Christian
Reconstruction" at: http://www.wam.umd.edu/~jimmon/crc.htm
- Robert Parsons, "Christian Reconstruction: A Call for
Reformation and Revival" at: http://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0505_Parsons_-_What_is_Re.html
- Media House International of Melbourne FL has made
available a series of articles by leading Reconstructionists. See: http://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0496.html
- Paul Thibodeau maintains a site that is critical of
Reconstructionism. See "Christian Reconstruction: God's
Glorious Millennium?" at: http://www.serve.com/thibodep/cr/cr.htm
- Gary North, "The Sinai Strategy: Economics and the Ten
Commandments," Institute for Christian Economics (1986)
Book References
- G.L. Bahnsen "Theonomy in Christian Ethics"
- G.L. Bahnsen "By This Standard"
- G.L. Bahnsen "No Other Standard"
- David Chilton's "Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt
Manipulators"
- George Grant and Mark Horne, "Legislating Immorality: The
Homosexual Movement Comes Out Of The Closet." (This book
advocates the death penalty for homosexual behavior.)
- R.J. Rushdoony "Institutes of Biblical Law"
- News dispatch, untitled, by AANEWS, a service of American Atheists,
1999-MAR-13.
- Joseph Conn, "Christians Stoning Teens," at: http://members.aol.com/timgore/teenstone.htm
Copyright 1998 & 2000 by Ontario Consultants on
Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2000-NOV-23
Author: B.A. Robinson
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