-
8/12/2019 1995 Issue 10 - Theonomic Ethics and the Westminster Confession: Theonomy in the PCA - Counsel of Chalcedon
1/2
There is an unfortunate recurring
oppositionto theonomicethics among
many
reformed Christians. t is
unfortunate
because reformed
Christians
operating
under the
Westminster Standards ought to be
the first to recognize the legitimacy of
theonomy. I have prepared this brief
and
somewhat sketchy paper
to
provide some
inSights into
why
reformed
Christians,
particularly
within my own denomination (the
Presbyterian
Church
in
America),
ought not be opposed to theonomy. I
hope
that these ideas, laid out in brief
form,
might
be
helpful to
those
reformed
Christians who need to
provide a response to their
reformed
brethren
who
find it necessary to resist
theonomy
.
The
onomy
in the
PCA
l .
The
General
Assembly
of
the PCA has
dealt with theonomy on
several occasions and
on
each
occasion has allowed
adherence to theonomy:
M7GA, Report on
Theonomy, p.
194-195: The last paragraph of text:
Ou r
suggestion
is that the General
Assembly
consider
this subject a
matter
of lib
erty
at
this
time.... Since varying
views have
been
held by Refonned people
in the past on this subject,
no
particular
view
of
he
application
of
the
judidallaw
for
today
should
be made
a basis for
orthodoxy or
excluded
as
a
heresy.
M9GA,
Review and
Control of
Presbyteries
Report,
Section IV:
Minutes recommend for approval with
exception, Entry 7 (p.
145):
Evangel
--June
10,
1980,p.
5., Items
19A.
4.C&D
-
examinations
of
candidates on
theology
were
postponed
for
issue
ofTheonomy .
This is contrary to the
Sixth General
Assembly instructions ....
.
Entry 9 (p.
146 ): Gulf Coast Presbytery ...
Theonomy made an
issue
and test of
orthodoxy
in examining candidate
for
transfer of
icensure contrary to Seventh
General Assembly
pronouncement.
MIOGA,
Case
1:
Compla
int of
Stephen M. Lee, et aI.,
against
Gulf Coast
Presbytery.... (The
presbytery]
failed to
sustain
the
theolOgical examination
of
Raymond Bradford Fell because
of
his
particular view
of
he application
of
God's
Law for today, that view being what is
commonly
referred
to as 'theonomy
.'
Reasonsfor
the
complaint:
1.
The action
of
the Gulf Coast
Presbytery
is contrary
to Ca) the
guidelines
of
the Seventh
General Assembly
... ,
and (b)
the report
of the Ninth General Assembly
admonishing
Gulf Coast Presbytery
for
making an issue
of
'theonomy
in
the
licensure examinat
ion
of
Raymond
Bradford Fell.
[Sustained, p.
55)
MllGA Recommendation
29
Addendum:
Since
there are
differences
of
opinion
with
regard
to the application
and
'general
equity' of
he various penal
sanctions, this declaration shall not
be
used by the couris
of
the Church to
ind
the conscience
of
elders
in the PCA.
2. Morton H. Smith (letter
of
recommendation or a theonomic
pastor, written to Allen
C.
Harris,
May30, 1989
:
The PCA has tahenthe
position
that theonomy is
not to
be used
as
a
m
eans
ofudginga
man to
be heretical
or orthodox.
Interestingly,
theonomic
ethics
critic Dr. Meredith G. Kline (WI],
Fall,
1978)
has lamented:
Cha1cedon
[sc
.
theonomyl is not
without roots in res
pectable
ecclesiastical tradition. It is in fact a
revival
of
certain teaching contained
in
theWestminster Confession ofFaith
-- at least
in
the Confession's Original
formulations. These particular
elements in the Confession... have
been subjected to official revision.
2
THE COUNSEL
of
Chalcedon November
1995
The revision, however, has left us
with standards whose proper legal
interpretation is
perpl
exed by
ambiguities,
an d
the
claim of
Chaleedon is that
it is
the
true
champion ofconfessional orthodoxy.
Ecclesiastical courts operating under
The Westminster Confession
of
Faith
are going
to
have their problems,
therefore, if they should be
of
a mind
to bring the Cha1cedon aberration
under their judicial scrutiny.
3. I have been a minister of the
PCA for twelve years and in two
presbytertes, having
never
had any
theonomic problems or allegations of
error charged against me. Generally
though not always),
where theonomyhasbeen
a
problem in
a PCA
church is
when
those who
oppose it stir up trouble.
The Meaning of
General Equity in the
Standards
4. As Donald
Remillard noted in his A
Contemporary Edition
of
the Westminster ConfeSSion
of
Faith
p.
v):
The initial text of the Westminster
Confession of Faith was presented to
the English speaking people in 1646.
This occurred only thirty-five years
after the publication of the Kingjames
version of
the
Bible in 1611.
Consequently, its original grammar
and vocabulary reflect a mode of
communication long dated
and
'foreign' to contemporary forms and
styles of English usage.
The Assembly wrote the
Confession of Faith
in
Elizabethan
English identical with
th
e
KJV,
even
0 emplOying its phraseology and (2)
us
ing it as the text for the Scripture
proof texts. It may be reasonably
concluded that the employment of
the term
equity
in WCF 19:4 would
have the same linguistic function
as
when
it appeared in the KJV. The
word equity appears ten times
in
the KJV:
-
8/12/2019 1995 Issue 10 - Theonomic Ethics and the Westminster Confession: Theonomy in the PCA - Counsel of Chalcedon
2/2
Psalm
98:9 KJV):
"Before the LORD; for he cometh
to judge the earth: with righteousness
shall he
judge
the world, and the
people with
equity.
(Heb.,
mesharim ,
"uprightness") Notice the parallel
of
"righteousness" and
equity.
Ps
a
hn
99:4 1\jV):
The king's
strength
also love
til
judgment;
thou
dost establish equity,
thou executest judgment and
righteousness
in
jacob. (Heb.,
mesllarim,
"uprightness") Notice the
parallel
of equity
wi
th
judgment and
righteousness.
Proverbs
1:3 KJV):
To
receive
the instructionofwisdom
,
justice, and
judgment,
and
equity
.
(Heb.,
mesharim,
"uprightness")
Notice the inclusion of
equity
with
wisdom, justice and judgment.
Proverbs
2:9 KJV):
"Then
shalt thou understand
righteousness,and judgment,
and
equity;
yea, eVelY
good path.
"(Heb.,
meshari111,
"uprightness")
Ibid.
Proverbs
17:26 KJV):
Also
to
punish
the just is
not good,
nor
to strihe
p,inces
for
equity
.
(Heb.,
yosher, upr
ightness")
Ecclesiast
es
2:21 KJV):
"Forthere is
a
man
who
se
laboU1'is
in
wisdom,
and
in knowledge, and inequity;
yet to a mall
that hath not laboured
therein shall he leave it for
his
portion.
This
also
is vanity and
a
great evil. "
(Heb.,
Idshron,
"right, benefit)
Isaiah
11:4 KJV):
But with righteousness
shall
hejudge
the poor, and reprove
with
equity
or the
meek
of he
earth:
and
he
shall
smite
the
earth
with
the
rod
of
his
mouth,
and
wi th
the
breath
of
his
lips shall he slay the
wic11Cd. (Heb.,
mislwr,
"uprightness")
Isaiah
59:14 KJV):
And judgment
is
turned away
backward, and justice standeth
afar off:
for
truth
is
allen
in
the
street, and
equity
cannot
enter.
Micah
3:9 KJV):
Hear
this
,
I
prayyou,ye
heads
of
h
e
house
of
acob,
and
p'inces
of
the house.
of
Israel, that abhor judgment,
and
pervert
all
equity.
(Heb.,
yashar,
"right,
uprightn
ess")
Malachi
:
6 KJV)
The law
of truth
was in his mouth,
and
iniquity
was
not found in
his
lips
: he
walked
with me in peace and
equity,
and did turn
many
away from
iniquity.
(Heb.,
mishor,
"uprightness")
5.
We
should notice, as well, that
there is remarkable difference in the
treatment
of
the "ceremonial law"and
the 'JudiCial law" in the Confession.
(I)
Without equivocation the
ceremonial law is declared "abrogated"
19:3).
But the judicial law is said to
have "expired," except forthe "general
equity.
Why
was it
not
declared
"abrogated" and reference made to
the New Testament for judicial
principles?
Or
to pre-Mosaic
directives,
such
as the Noahic
Covenant? And why do the judicial
laws appear in the proof-texts for the
Larger Catechism exposition of the
Ten Commandments? Samuel Willard
(1640-1707), pastor at Boston's Old
South Church, in his
Compleat Body
of Divinity
(posthumous, 1726):
With
respect
to
the
judicial Laws,
we
must
observe, that these were Appendices,
partly of
the Moral,
partly of
the
Ceremonial
Law:
Now
such as, or
so
far
as they
are
related to
the
Ceremonial,
they
are doubtless Abolished
with it.
As,
and as
for
as they bear respect to
the
Moral
Law, they do,
eo Nomine, require
Obedience perpetual, and
are
therefore
reducible to Moral Precepts.
(2) Throughout
th
e exposition of
the Ten Commandmentsin the Larger
Cat
echism, we
find refe
ren
ce
to
numerous case laws We must
remember that the division of the Law
by
the Confession is three-fold: Moral
(which involves
only
the 10
commandments), ceremonial (which
involve symbolic, redemptive laws),
and judicial (which involves all the
rest, many
of which
are cited in the
Larger Catechism). Interestingly, even
one
of
the
more
difficult capital
pUnishment laws (Deut. 13) appears
several times
in
proof-texting the
second commandment.
(3) At
WCF
20: 1 we read:
But,
under the new testament, the liberty
of
Christians is
further
en
la
rged, in
their
freedom from the yoke of he
ceremonial
law,
to
which the
j
ewish
Church
was
subjected
.... No mention
of the moral
or judicial divisions
of
the law are
noted here.
6. Equity
in the
Webster's New
Twentieth
Century Unabridged
Dictionary: "
l justice;
impartiality;
the
giving
or
desiring
to give to each
ma
y
his
due.
With
righteousne
ss
shall
he
judge
the
world, and
the
people
with equity.
In the Oxford English Dictionary the
word
equity
is dealt
with
thus:
equity ofastatute
according
to
its
reason
and
sp
irit
so as
to
make
it apply to cases
for which
it does not expressly provide."
ln
the original WCF
23:3
we read:
"all
blasphemies
and
heresies
be
suppressed and they cited
Lev.
24:16
and Deu . 13:5 as proof-texts.
How
could "general eqUity" exclude the
notion?
For ins
t
ance, Puritan
Thomas
Cartwright his Second
Rep ly
(cited in
Works of
john
Whitgift
[Parker
Society ed., Cambridge: University
Press, 1851], 1:270):
And, as for
the judicial
law,
fora
sm
uch
as
there are some
of
them
made in regard of the region where
they were given, and
of
the people to
whom
they were given, the prince
and magistrate, keeping the substance
and
equity
of them (as it were the
marrow), may change
the
circumstance
of them
, as the times
and p
la
ces and manners
of
the people
shall require. But to say that any
magistrate
can
save
the life
of
blasphemers, contemptuous and
stubborn
idolaters
,
murderers,
adulterers, incestuous persons, and
such like, which God be his judicial
law hath commanded to be put to
death, I do utterly deny, and am ready
to prove, if that pertained to this
question. (TO BE CONTINUED)
November
995
THE COUNSEL
of
Chalcedon
21