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Two Sennons Preached by
. Dr. Cireg Bahnsen at the
1994
A.c.T.S. Conference
REviEWED BY CHRIS
STREVEL
Introduction
With this intriguing question,
taken
from
a
popular
ballad of the
19605, Oteg Bahnsen began two
messages
which
profoundly
affected
all
who heard
them.
Hearts were
melted,
tears flowed,
and
sins
were
confessed. It
was
the fervent desire of
all
present
that the
Lord
Jesus Christ would
powerfully use these sennons o
.prune away the dead
branches
of
his church,
heal her of schism,
confonnher to his Word, and
make her a light
to
the nations.
Dr.
Bahnsen
taught us
that a
school
of thought,
no
less than an
individual, is known by its
fruits
(Luke 6:44).
Worldviews
which
have roots
deeply
planted in the
living vine,
Jesus Christ,
have
always
produced
much
fruit
unto
the honor and glory of Ood. They
have done so because they have
remained consistent
to
his revealed
will
in
the
Bible.
Those
Systems
'that have departed from the Word
of
Ood become dead
wood,
fruitless
branches, and have
been
cut off by Almighty
Ood,
the
Sovereign Vinedresser,
Nowhere
is
this more clearly
illuslri ted than in the modem
theonomy
debate.
One
group
of the Mosaic
polity
as a blueprint
advocates the nonnativity
and for
civil governments, these
applicability of
all
of Ood's law to theologians have denied that the
all
walks
of life.
The other
group
Bible's judicial
laws
are
binding
considers such an outlook as on modem man. Emphasizing the
dangerous,
deceived,
and
out
of heart,
Spirit,
and love, these men,
step
with
the
historic confessions churches, and schools have
of the Refonned
faith.
Dr.
suspended
the
law
of
Ood,
Bahnsen encouraged
us
to evaluate rejected the Refonnalion, and
both
schools
by their respective have engulfed the world in the
fruits. Simply
put, . et's visit one
cultural and ethical darkness,
another's neighborhood. decay, and destruction that t is
.
.
xperiencing
today.
The
results
were not exactly .
what we expected. '
Dr. Bahnsen
(
nVl
ted us to take
a walk with him through
the
How's t
GOing
in the Other evangelical neighborhood. How's
Guys' Neighborhoodl
it
going with those who have
, The majority of churches, repudiated
the
law of Ood
seminaries,
and
pastors
in our
land
.
contained in the
Old and New
d v ~ t e
a grace
that is
freed from Testaments What is the fruit of
the
restrictive; authoritarian
codes their commitment to
a
lawless
of the law of Ood. They
stress
the
gracel
In all honesty, their
liberty that believers have in the
neighborhood
looked
like a war
Holy
Spirit.
Driving a wedge
zone.
between
the
Old and New
Testaments, or between
the
theocracy of Old Testament Israel
and the
spiritual,
non-national
church in
the New
Testament,
they reject
the civil
polity that Ood
revealed to his people under the
Old
Testament. Accordingly,
they have vehemently criticized
the Reconstructionists for their
belief in the law of Ood as the
model for political institutions.
We are
under
grace,
they say, not
law.
. More specifically,
these
groups
have
abandoned
the historic
.
position of the Church of Jesus
Christ
with
respect to
the
nonnativity
of the
Mosaic polity.
Whereas the fathers of the
church
early and often
affinned
the
hannony of the law and the
gospel,
and
the binding authority
.
Devastation,
'relativity,
confusion,
and ethical darkness
surrounded us wherever we
turned. Our
once great
land,
which
our Puritan forefathers
intended
as
a model
of
what a
society
based upon Ood's law
could
be, is little
more
than a
suburb
of
hell. Psychology
and
education have
erased
the
categories
of
right
and wrong.
Individuals, govemments, and
judicial
bodies
are free to make up
their own laws,
irrespective
of the
revealed
decrees
of man's only
Lawgiver. Crime and sexual
perversion are nonnal in our
society.
The churches,
which
should
be citadels full
of light,
examples of
righteousness,
justice,
and
wisdom,
give
an
unclear
sound. But they can give no
other sound. Denying the
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all-sufficiency
of (jod's Word
for
men and
nations, the churches in
America have no
message
that
will resist the
spirit of
autonomy
that is
ravaging
our
land.
The saddest and most
frightening
element
of
this
visit
consisted
in
the realization that
35
of
Americans claim
to
be
evangelical Christians.
Having
abandoned (jod's law, however,
having sold their heritage of
submission to
(jod's law
in
all
areas of life for
a mess
of
respectability and
pluralistic
porridge, this huge segment
of
our
population
is causing (jod's name
to be
blasphemed
among
the
heathen. Our
culture, you
see,
is
following
the lead of the church.
We
are
free from (jod's law,
modern theologians
say.
Hallelujah, shouts
modern man.
Now we can get
to
work,
building
our modem-day
towers of
Babel
In
the face
of
this social
decay,
Dr.
Bahnsen asked
the
question,
How many
times can
a man tum
his head and
pretend
he just
doesn't
seel"
The
problem in
the
other
guys' camp
is not
simply that
their system
has
born no
fruit, but
that
they
refuse
to
admit the
problems within their system.
Rather than returning
to
(jod's
law as the answer
to
our society's
problems, they attack us . They
criticize, misrepresent, and slander
those
of
us
that
are
seeking
to
call
men
back
to (jod's Word as the
only rule
of
faith and obedience .
They
tum
their heads to the decay
and
darkness
surrounding
them.
Rather than seeking
to
reconstruct
their
neighborhood
by the Word
of jod, they waste their time
hying
to
defend
an unbiblical
ethical system
that has produced
the
bloodiest
and most
immoral
century the world
has
ever
seen.
The other guys'
neighborhood
was worse than we anticipated.
Not
only
is
there
no fruit
on the
tr
ee, but
the tree
itself
is
diseased,
rotten
to the
core. The salt has
lost
its saltiness. There
is no light
left on the hill.
Those
who
insist
on a lawless grace are a disgrace
to
the
Lord
Jesus Christ and
his law.
s this part
of
the tour
came to
an end, we were saddened over
the state
of
the church in 1994.
We were
also
gratified,
th
ankful,
and
excited.
For
we
recognized
that out of his
love
and grace,
Almighty (jod
had
preserved a .
faithful remnant in his church that
is
seeking
to
call
men
back
to the
law of (jod.
It was
now time
for
a trip through
our
own
neighborhood.
ows It (joing in
OUf
wn
Neighborhoodl
Reconstructionists
expect
their
neighborhood to be significantly
better
than
the
other
guys. In
a
sense, this
is
true. We
are
advocating the law of (jod as the
only answer to man's cultural and
political problems,
Our
churches
are giving a
certain sound from
their
pulpits,
which
are devoted
to
preaching
the
whole
counsel
of
jod.
If men will
turn
in faith and
repentance
to
the
Lord Jesus
Christ, and follow the principles of
(jod's law that we are
advocating
,
society
can be
restored and
restructured
in a way that has
been commanded by and
will
glorify (jod.
Dr.
Bahnsen pOinted out,
however,
that the law is
not
enough.
Wisdom is needed to
apply (jod's law correctly. In
(jod's Word, law and wisdom
go
hand in hand. The law of jod
makes us wise
(Deut.
4:6), and
wisdom
leads
us to (jod's law
(Prov.
10:8,
28
:
7).
The law,
however, in
the hand
of
fools is an
ugly thing. While the
Reconstructionists
have (jod's
law, they lack wi
sdom.
They
have not leamed how
to
apply
(jod's law in a loving, attractive,
and wise manner. In short, we
have used the
law like
children.
We
have uglied ourselves
through
our foolish wielding of (jod's law.
At
this point, we swallowed
hard.
We
could see
where
Dr.
Bahnsen's second message was
gOing. After touring the other
guys' neighborhood, and
finding
it
devastated, we expected our own
to
reveal
substantially
more fruit.
We anticipated a city full of life
and light,
a bastion of wisdom for
all the
world to
see.
Through our
foolishness,
however, through
our
lack of wisdom in living
out the
requirements
of (jod's law among
ourselves,
our own neighborhood
is
'devastated as well.
Because
of
our
foolishness, the world has
tumed its back on the
answers we
have to
give.
Our own
foolishness in handling (jod's law
has
allowed our enemies to
use
ad
hominem
arguments against
our
position.
The arguments
are
invalid, the criticisms
are just
What did Dr. Bahnsen mean
when he called us foolish in our
application
of
(jod's law? Simply
this.
An
intellectual
understanding of (jod's law is
insufficient and
destructive
if we
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1995 THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon 13
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8/12/2019 1995 Issue 1 - How Many Times Can a Man Turn His Head and Pretend He Just Doesn't See? - Counsel of Chalced
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lack
the
skill to mold our
daily
lives by
its precepts; If
a man
does
not remember the weightier
matters of the law,
justice, mercy,
and faith, his understanding ofthe
finer points of the law
is us'eless.
It
is obvious, Dr.
Bahnsen
pointed
out, that Reconstructibnistslack
wisdom. They
have spent
thousands of hours
applying
the
finer points of God s law, but they
have neglected
to
apply
the
weightier matters of the law to
their own relationships with
each
other.
True wisdom
is
pure,
peaceable,
gentle, and
easy to
understand. Reconstructionists
do
not have the reputation
of making
peace among themselves. Our
own
hO\Jse is
filled with
strife.
While we repudiate and
condemn
human autonomy
in
ethics, we
have been content toallow it in
our interpersonal
relationships.
This
is
sinful and will
incur
God s
wrath if
it
continues.
If
the
Christian
Reconstructionists
are
going
to
impact the
future,
if their
goal of
societal transformation
based upon the Word
of
God
is to
be achieved, they
must make
peace.among themselves now.
The schism among many of its
leaders
is
downright
shameful.
While all of
us
need
to
repent of
our failures to love
one
another
and resolve differences
in
a biblical
manner, the autonomous attitude
of many of the leading adherents
of theonomy will
bring Clod's
judgment down
upon
us.
Our
house
is
divided, brothers. We
must
confess
our
sins
and
beseech
Clod
for
wisdom
in resolVing these
decades-old
rivalries.
True
Wisdom tames the tongue.
Clossip,
stahder, and
the
sowing of
-discord among brothers are par for
the
course
among
many
segments
of the. Reconstructionists.
If we
cannot
control our tongues, James
says,. we
cannot call ourselves
Christians He writes that
our
religion is useless,
vain,worthless
if we cannot
speak in
a
loving
way.
Many within
our
movement slander others behind
their
backs. They lie. They
repeat
falsehoods
as
if
true,
and refuse to
confront
the
supposedly
wayward
brother. Sadly, it seems to be
the
pastime
of
some
to spread
rumors.
True wisdom demonstrates a
teachable ilttitude. Sadly,
whenever
some attempts toward
reconciliation have been
made,
the
offending
party refuses to listen.
Proverbs teaches
us,
however,
that
it
is
a fool that
refuses to
listen
to
what
others
say
by
way
of
correction
and
instruction.
s Dr. Bahnsen's second
sermon
drew
to
a
close, we
r e ~ l i z e that
our
neighborhood
looked like
a war
zone
as well.
While
our theory is great,
our
practice is often abominable.
When we
fail to apply Clod's law
in
a wise manner, we
ugly
ourselves,
pervert
Clod's Word,
and
become
hypocrites in the
eyes
of the
world. Where
is
the
fruit
among
the Reconstructionists
which
gives
us
any hope that we
are truly
united
to Jesus
Christl
Where is the love,
resolved
interpersonal conflicts, and
kindness that proves
we
take
Clod's
law
seriously Do we really
love
our
neighbor as
ourselves
Dr.
Bahnsen
cut us
badly
on
H
THE COUNSEL
of
Chalcedon January 1995
that Sundaymoming.
Each f us
bears the blame.
We
take sides
without
verifying our information.
We
d() not pray for wisdom for
ourselVes
and
for our leaders.
Because of
our
lack of wisdom, we
are giving the enemies of Clod's
law a
reason,
invalid though
it
may logically
be,
to
repudiate
Clod's
law. After
all,
they
say,
a
tree is
known by
its fruits. Look at
your neighborhood.
While
you
criticize ours,
your own
is little
better.
What
can
we do to remedy
the
situationl We
must
humble
ourselves before
Clod and
repent of
our
foolish
handling
of his
law.
We must fear the
Lord. This is
the
beginning of wisdom. We
must mediate upon Clod's
character.
We
must ask Clod for
wisdom. He will not tum us
away
Brothers,
we
must
tum
our
head to the
problems
in our own
neighborhood. By
Clod's grace,
we have
the
tools by
which we
may
resolve
them and reconstruct
our
ownlleighborhood
for
the
glory
of
Clod If
we
refuse to hear
wisdom as
she
cries
in the streets,
our intramural
problems
will
continue.
And
sadly, the
criticisms of other
Christians and
unbelievers alike
will
obscure the
real issue.
Do we
really
waht our
personal character to be the reason
why this generation
does
not
listen to our vital
messagel
Dr.
Bahnsen's
initial
question
must be answered by Christians
on both
sides
of
the
theonomy
issue.
How many times
can
a
man
tum
hiS head
and
pretend
he
just
doesn t see
Q