1988 issue 11 - the failure of first generation reconstructionists: judges 2, part ii - counsel of...

8/12/2019 1988 Issue 11 - The Failure of First Generation Reconstructionists: Judges 2, Part II - Counsel of Chalcedon

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The ailure of

irst Generation

econstructionistsJudges 2

Part IIby Joe Morecraft, i l l

Gary North's critique of natural lawis to the point, Moses ndPharaoh, pg. 236-246):

Such a conception of natural lawrests on the assumption of a universalhuman logic, the universal applicabilityin history of that logic, and the universal recognition of this logic and itsuniversal applicability by all reasonablemen. t assumes, in short, the neutrality of human thought.

The Bible explicitly denies any suchneutrality. Men are divided into savedand lost, keepers of God's covenant andbreakers of God's covenant. There is noagreement between the two positions. -

Human reason, unaided by God'srevelation-untwisted by God's grace -cannot be expected to devise a univer

sal law code based on any presumesuniversal human logic. What mankinds'universal reason can be expected to dois to rebel against God and his law.Ethical rebels are not logically faithfulto God.

The Greek and Roman concept ofnatural law rested on the presuppositionof man's autonomy. It rested on thepresupposition of neutrality in hu

man thought. The Bible recognizes thiscommon heritage of the image of Godin man, but it sees this image astwisted and perverse in rebellious man.

A crisis of confidence has appearedin the West which has undermined theWest's confidence in its own legal institutions. Harold Berman's account ofthis erosion is masterful: What is newtoday is the challenge to the legal tradition as a whole, and not merely to particular elements or aspects of it; and this

is manifested above ll in the confrontation with non-Western civilizations andnon-Western philosophies. In the past,Western man has confidently carried hislaw with him throughout the world.The world today, however, is suspicious--more suspicious than ever before-of Western legalism. Eastern SouthernMan offer other alternatives. The Westitself has come to doubt the universalvalidity of its traditional vision of law,especially its validity for non-Westerncultures. Law that used to seem 'natural'seems only Western.' And many aresaying that it is obsolete even for theWest.'

The acidsof

the West's own humanism and relativism have eroded thefoundations of Western legality, whichhas been one of the chief pillars ofWestern civilization. f all cultures areequally valid, then their legal traditionsare also equally valid as aspects of thesecompeting cultures. Therefore, Hayekrecommends that we refuse to save thatdying elderly Eskimo who has been leftto perish in the snow by his peers. Is itany wonder, then, that Hayek's eloquentplea for a nineteenth-century relativism

has eroded his economic and legalprescriptions.

Men seek a sovereignty greater thanthemselves, a sovereignty which canguarantee meaning to their lives andsuccess in their many ventures. If Godis not the source of law, andlaw is not universally valid because it is revealed, Biblicallaw, then only a hypotheticaluniversal power state remainsto give man the sovereignty he

seeks (Emphasis by JCMIII) If thisalso fails, then nothing remains to as-sure mankind that his works have meaning in time and on earth.

The failure of natural lawdoctrine was assured when men

at last ceased to equate naturallaw with biblical law (Emphasisby JCMIII) When natural law was atlast recognized as 'natural' rather thanrevealed, autonomous rather thancreated, then it gained its universalityonly to the extent that mankind is seenas a true universal. But with the rise ofrelativism .., the hoped-for unity ofman collapsed. Now only powerremains, not natural law. Now only therise of a new source of unity, the worldState, can guarantee man's legal orderthe unity it requires.... Natural lawthereby ceases being natural. Auniversal law can only be imposed bythe power of the State. To summarize:Natural law theory abandonedreliance on the revealed law ofthe God of the Bible in order toassert its autonomy and universality, only to lose both itsautonomy and naturalness (selfattesting universal validity) tothe new sovereignty of the

power state (Emphasis by JCMIII)We must also respond to the crisisof Western law with the answers thatBerman is unwilling to call for: therestoration of Christianity as the foundation of Western religion, the restorationof this religion as the foundation ofmorality and reason, and the establishment of biblical law--and not therestoration of natural law theory--as thefoundation of social orqer. Nothing elsewill revive the West. A true religiousrevival--a comprehensive revival

which restructures every human institution in terms of biblical law--alone canestablish the West's foundations of longterm social and legal order. A true revival alone can re-establish the longterm institutional foundations of thefree market economy.

This general decline in the life andthought of second generation AmericanPuritans is located in the decline of theunity of Puritan thought and .. the pietyof Puritan life, wrote Terry Elniff in

The Counsel of Chalcedon, November, 1988 Page7


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~ ~- - ~ . . : ;

his book, The Guise o Every GracelessHeart. He explains:

The Puritan concept of unity ... involved a commonwealth ofseparate spheres of covenant activity-close, compact, coordinate, but not

confounded; independent but interdependent.

The ideology of Puritanism with itsemphasis on limited and divided power,its spirit of non-autonomy, and itsinsistence on the application of God'slaw as an absolute and sovereign authority outside of man was instituted in aform of government and social orderwhich was based on the consent embodied in the covenant, limited by thelaw, and active both in preserving thesocial fabric and the individual libertyof its citizens. At the same time thePuritan theology developed an ethic thatenabled its adherents to live realisticallyand prosperously in the holy commonwealth that had been created. (pg. 102)

It has been our endeavor, he (theauthor of the seventeenth century Puritan book, New England s First Fruits)wrote, 'to have all God's own institutions, and no more than his own, andall those in their native simplicity,without having any human dressings;

having a libertyto

enjoy all that Godcommands, and yet urged to nothingmore than he commands.' To have anything more than God commanded washuman autonomy; to have anythingless than he commanded was disorderand lawlessness. The essence of nonautonomy was to have all that Godcommanded and no more. To the extentthat New England accomplished that, tothat extent she prospered. The problem New England had and thedilemmas she faced, as we have

seen, can be traced to having orattempting to have either moreor less than God s own institutions (Emphasis by JCMIII) What thehistorians have called the declensionwas simply the result of turning awayfrom those institutions in one way oranother to human autonomy. (pg. 103)

The increasing encroachment of pretended human autonomy into AmericanPuritan life and thought resulted in agrowing disharmony and disorder in

colonial society. Their goal was 'tomaintain a complete harmony of reasonand faith, science and religion, earthlydominion and the government of God,wrote Perry Miller in he Puritans. Butthey were not successful in maintaining

that unity of thought and life u n e ~theword of God to the glory of God incoming generations.

Human (pretended) autonomy is thesense of self-sufficiency and confidencein the ability of human reason tounderstand and order life apart from theguidance and enlightenment of god'sWord and God's Spirit. The focal pointsof this struggle between human autonomy and non-autonomy in AmericanPuritanism were church membership,church establishment, the relation ofchurch and state, and church government. Controversies in these areas hadimplications for the entire Puritanworld-view. Elniff writes:

As the spheres separated more widely, the division between church andstate was more pronounced: the churchwas seen as ruling in spiritual matterswhile the state ruled in temporal andsecular matters. The elements of authority were seen as separate and dividedrather than as cooperating and unified.

The individual looked to the church onmoral, spiritual, and theological matters, but to the secular state for protection, welfare, prosperity and justice--the'keys to personal aggrandizement.' Intracing this development through thewritings of the Puritans, we should beaware, warns Rutmen, that there 'is asubtle difference between a Winthrop orCotton for whom the goal of societywas the pleasing of God; a Samuel

Willard to whom a happy, contentedpeople was most pleasing to God; and a

John Wise to whom 'the happiness ofthe people, is the end of (the state's)being; or main business to be attendedand done.''

The transformation from the 'pleasing of God' to the 'happiness of thepeople' as the end of the state is certainly an example of the developingautonomous outlook, but the moresignificant development is the acceptance of the division of the commonwealth, the mutually exclusive, divided

and distinct, and that the more im-portant concerns of the people werebound up with the state rather than thechurch. (pg. 1o9)

The ultimate failure of the holy com-monwealth came with the decline of the

concepts of unity and piety, as thePuritans lost both the sense of thecovenanted spheres united in the TriuneGod and the reality of the spiritual viewof life. The concept of human autonomy was expressed in the secularizationof the state and in the 'intellectualsomersaults the Puritan made as hemoved back and forth between hissecular and spiritual interests. (pp.117f)

With this synthesis in Puritanthought came the deterioration ofpersonal piety. And because of this, bythe eighteenth century, colonial life wasno longer harmonious. I t was shakenwith all kinds of internal disorders.First generation American Puritan,William Bradford, the first governor ofthe Plymouth plantation, as ah oldman, grieved over this spiritual declension he could already see in the late1600's, He said:

0 that these ancient members hadnot died or been dissipated ..or else thatthis holy care and constant faithfulnesshad still lived, and remained with thesethat survived, and were in times afterward added unto them. But (alas) thatsubtle serpent hath slyly wound inhimself under fair pretence of necessityand the like to untwist these sacredbonds and ties, and as it were insensibly, by degrees, to dissolve or in agreat measure to weaken, the same. Ihave been happy, in my first times, tosee, and with much comfort to enjoy;the blessed fruits of this sweet

communion, but it is now a part of mymisery in old age, to find and feel thedecay and want thereof .., and with griefand sorrow of heart, to lament andbewail the same.

However; it should be pointed outthat this declension advanced slowly inNew England, because of the biblicalinstitutions the Puritans had put inplace. Their biblical concept of checksand balances between various spheres ofauthority, such as the family, church

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and state; their emphasis on the limitednon-sovereign authority of thesespheres; and their commitment that allspheres were totally governed by biblical law, enabled this Holy Commonwealth to be a productive, self-correct

ing, self-stabilizing, and institutionallybalanced society "with liberty andjustice for all for almost two hundredyears.

In 1730, the hundredth anniversary ofthe founding of New England, ThomasPrince spoke of this declension inPuritanism. He did so, not in despairand hopelessness, but to encourage hislisteners to correct the situation andenjoy the restored blessing of AlmightyGod. He said:

"But 0 Alas Our great and dangerous declensions To what an awfulmeasure are they gone already, howtranscendently guilty do they make us,how threatening do they grow ...

"Though 'tis true we still maintain ingeneral the same religious principlesand profession with our pious fathers,yet how greatly is the spirit of pietydeclined among us, how sadly is religion turning more and more into a mereform of godliness, as the apostlespeaks, without the power, and howdreadfully is the love of the world prevailing more and more upon this professing people And this notwithstanding all the zealous testimonieswhich have from time to time abovethese threescore years been borneagainst tl1ese growing evils.

"Now then let the affecting view ofall these things, both present, past andfuture, excite us all in our severalplaces to do our utmost that we maynot share in the dreadful guilt of tllisdeclension, nor have our par t in drawing

on the lamentable consequences of it.But let us lay it to heart and mourn before the Lord, first our own apostasiesand sins and then tlle apostasies andsins prevailing among this people. Letus cry earnestly for the Spirit of graceto be poured forth on us and them, thatthe hearts of the children may bereturned to tlle God of their fathers andmay continue steadfast in his sacredcovenant. And being revived ourselves,let us labor to revive religion. in our

several families, and then rise up forGod in this evil day, bear our openwitness also against the public degeneracy, and do what in us lies for tllerevival of the power of piety among allabout us." (from he People of New

England Putin

Mind of the RighteousActs of the Lord to Them and TheirFathers.

"Not long after, tlle Great Awakeningbroke out. For the Puritans, it seems,not even declension could be autonomous." writes Elniff, pg. 113.

So where does this leave us in theUnited States in 1988?

It means that today's Christians,armed with the old Puritan vision andworld-view, obtained from the Biblealone, by means of the Protestant Reformation, must recognize the magnitudeof the task before, us, and further recognize that we, and we alone, not only understand the true nature of our nationalcrisis, but also hold the only solution-the reconstruction of the United Statesin terms of the Puritan vision of a HolyCommonwealth on these shores, avoiding the mistakes they made. This is notnostalgia. But it is only as we build onthe biblical foundation the first generation American Puritans laid that we cantake the future for Christ.

May Christians all over America recommit themselves, by the grace ofGod, to pray for and work for tlle reestablishment of the crown rights ofChrist, tlle King, over all the earth, andfor the Christian Reconstruction of allaspects of American life and thought bythe infallible Word of God in tl1e powerof the Holy Spirit to tlle glory of God.May we not rest until we see, under theLord's blessing, Christian individuals,loving each other in Christian families,

worshipping in Christian churches, educating their children in Christianschools, working in Christian businesses, under the protection of a ChristianRepublic and Christian states, governedby Christian elected officials, withChristian judges administering biblicallaw.

May tllat day come when our belovednation will publicly and sincerelyconfess: " .. we the people of theUnited States of America, distinctly

acknowledge our responsibility to God,and the supremacy of His Son, JesusChrist, as King of kings, and Lord oflords; and hereby ordain that no lawshall be passed by the Congress ofthese United States inconsistent with

the will of god, as revealed in the HolyBible." Amen So let it be

A Recommended AmericanPuritan Bibliography

1. Elniff, Terry, he Guise of EveryGraceless Heart: Human Autonomy inPuritan Thought and Experience, 1981,Ross House Books, Vallecito, Calif.

2. Rushdoony, R J., hisIndependent Republic: Studies in theNature and Meaning of AmericanHistory, 1964, The Craig Press,Nutley, N.J. Read chapter entitled,"The Holy Commonwealth."

3. Jordan, James, ed., he Failure ofthe American Baptist Culture,Christianity and Civilization Series,1982, Geneva Divinity School, Tyler,Texas. Read chapter entitled, "As toRoger Williams and his 'Banishment'from the Massachusetts Plantation.'

4. North, Gary, ed., he Journal ofChristian Reconstruction: Symposiumon Christianity and the AmericanRevolution, Summer 1976, Chalcedon,Vallecito, Calif.

5. Bradford, William, f PlymouthPlantation 1620-1647, Modem LibraryCollege Editions, reprinted in 1981 byRandom House. Bradford was a firstgeneration American Puritan, and thefirst Governor of Plymouth plantation.

6. Mather, Cotton, he Great Worksof Christ in America, vol. I IT firstprinted in 1702, reprinted in 1979 bythe Banner of Trutl1 Trust, Edinburgh,Scotland.

7. Cotton, John, "The Divine Rightto Occupy the Land," a sermon preachedin 1630, entitled originally, "God'sPromise to His Plantation," based onSam. 7:10.

8. Winthrop, John, "A Model ofChristian Charity," a sermon preachedin 1630 aboard the flagship, Arabella.This sermon is one of tlle bestexpressions of the ideals of the PuritanCommonwealtll in America.

9. Cotton, John, "Letter to Lord

The Counsel of Chalccdon, November, 1988 P a g c 9


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Saye and Seal, 1636, pointing out thenature and purpose o the HolyCommonwealth.

10. Winthrop, John, The Exclusiono Heretics, 1637, which is a defenseo the Massachusetts General Court's

decision concerning John Wheelwright.11. Fundamental Orders of

Connecticut, 1639, the first Americanconstitution.

12. Massachusetts Body of Liberties,1641, the first law code for Massachusetts, based on a model by NathanielWard.

13. Ward, Nathaniel, The SimpleCobbler of Aggawam .. Willing to HelpMend His Native Country, LamentablyTattered, Both in the Upper-Leather andSole, with All the Honest Stitches HeCan Take, 1647, affirming the Massachusetts way o religious orthodoxy.

14.'' Bulkeley, Peter, A City SetUpon a Hill, 1651, a sermon originally entitled, The Gospel-Covenant.

15. Johnson, Edward, WonderWorking Providence of Zion's Savior inNew England, 1654, a history o theMassachusetts colony.

16. New England's First Fruits,anonymously written, 1638.

**(7-16 are published in The Annals

o America, Vol. I, 1968, EncyclopediaBritannica, 1968, Chicago.)

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P a g e l O ~ The Counsel of Chalcedon, November, 1988

1988 issue 11 - the failure of first generation reconstructionists: judges 2, part ii - counsel of...

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