Top 3 reasons why you shouldn't be a Theonomist
The rise of Theonomy and Dominionism among a growing segment of modern Christianity is cause for concern. More and more people are being seduced by these unbiblical beliefs and are marching toward a expectation and future that simply can't be supported when you look around at the world today.
The appeal to an abrogated Old Testament is especially bad. Jesus taught regularly that the adherence to the Old Law was "leaven" and taught that love had superseded the violent and insensitive laws of the Old Order.
Since this theology is becoming so prevalent, with new interests in theonomy and republishing of out-of-print book such as "Theonomy in Christian Ethics" I decided that I needed to show the top 3 reasons why you should avoid theonomy.
1) It depends too much on scripture.
Theonomists are far too dependent upon the word of God to be trusted. Whenever you try and bring an objection against them they typically respond with a bible verse. This can usually be refuted by simply saying, "but that's Old Testament." Whenever they turn to a New Testament passage to support their claims, you can then say, "that's out of context." At this point they will usually walk away shaking their heads, this means you've won the argument. Just be aware, their reliance upon the word of God cannot be taken seriously. The Old Testament is bad, and the New testament is good, just remember that and you'll be pleasing to God.
2) It provides answers to the current social turmoil
Its easy to see that the world is a mess right now. (contrary to the Postmillennialist belief that clouds are cotton candy and that the land is flowing with literal milk and honey) While all Christians should recognize these issues, attempting to address them with real solutions just isn't what we're called to do. Christians aren't called to be a peculiar people, nor are we commanded to preach the gospel outside of church. Besides, the solutions that Theonomists put forward would result in a bloodbath that would make the Holocaust seem like a co-ed sleepover. I have even heard one Theonomist (I can't remember his name) say that "all Christians should carry extra rocks, so that anytime we see a disobedient child they can be stoned on the spot!" The Theonomist puts forward an attempt at justice by saying people should be held accountable for their actions. They even try to say that restitution would be a viable form of punishment, obviously ignoring all the great benefits of a prison system that has done so much good in the world.
3) Morality and Ethics are defined
When it comes to morals and ethics, the Theonomist is the worst of all. They claim that morality isn't fluid, and that truth cannot be personal. They even claim that if we want to truly define love and ethics, we need to use the bible (probably the Old Testament) in order to understand what love is! The absurdity of this claim is obvious. Love is a common feeling that all humanity shares, and so cannot be tied in any way to the bible. Love is whatever we make it, and if anyone says that "we can turn to a perfect standard in order to understand what Christian love looks like," just ignore that bigot. Not only this, but the Theonomist claims to have a moral standard as well. Everyone knows that natural law is really the thing everyone follows, and that any written standard of morality is just an opinion. We may never be able to agree on what natural law even is...but whatever is it, it has to be better than the unchanging and foundational morality of the Bible.
And so, as I've shown conclusively, Theonomy is best avoided, especially if you want to be accepted by non-Christians and Christians who believe what Jesus taught. We need to love our neighbor and ourselves, these are the two greatest commandments. Thankfully, many others are seeing the rise of Theonomy and are writing many irrefutable and destructive articles against it. We aren't afraid of it at all!
For more great blog posts, see "Why I believe the Bible is written by man" and "5 reasons Jesus was a socialist."
The really sad part is, that many "Christians" today could read this article and not understand that it's satire. 😪