A Conquered Kingdom: Biblical Civil Government
Daniel Ritchie
Foreword 1 Rev. Paul Michael Raymond (Dutch Reformed)
Foreword 2 Rev. Douglas Comin (RPCNA)
Foreword 3 Rev. John Otis (RPCUS)
Preface
Explanation of why I wrote the book, and a definition of terms such as Theonomy and Christian Reconstruction (this also explains the relevance of Presuppositional Apologetics, VanTillan Epistemology and Postmillennial Eschatology).
Introduction
Regeneration and Christian Reconstruction
The Dominion Mandate
Chapter 1: The Kingship of Christ over the Nations
Exegetical study of various texts relating to Christ’s kingship over the nations and civil government.
Chapter 2: Political Polytheism and Toleration
The Myth of Neutrality
Political Polytheism and the First Commandment
God’s Judgment Upon Pluralism
Pluralism is Logically Impossible
The Issue of Toleration
Chapter 3: National Confessionalism and the Establishment Principle
Religious Establishment: An Inescapable Concept
The Necessity of a National Recognition of Christ (Social Covenanting)
Erastianism, Ecclesiocracy and the Separation of Powers
Alliance Between Church and State
The Precise Nature of a Christian Establishment (Divergent views of the Establishment Principle considered)
Chapter 4: The Limited Role of Civil Government
Sola Scriptura and Sphere Sovereignty
Crime and Punishment
Just Warfare
Quarantine
Taxation and Private Property
Chapter 5: Christianity versus Statism
What is Statism?
Biblical Examples of Statism (Tower of Babel, Egypt, Babylon, Medo-Persian, Roman, Jewish Compromise with Statism)
Christianity Confronts Statism (how the early church confronted Statism both practically and theologically)
Christianity versus Statist Welfare
Christianity versus Statist Education
Statist Law and the Attack Upon Biblical Freedom
Statism and Private Property
Chapter 6: The Biblical Form of Civil Government
Theocratic Republicanism: The Divinely Established Form of Civil Government
The Principle of Decentralization
The Qualifications and Duties of Civil Officers
Voting Rights
Unbiblical Forms of Civil Government (Anarchy, Monarchy, Oligarchy, Bureaucracy, Parliamentary Sovereignty and Democracy)
Appendix One: Civil Disobedience and Just Revolution
Appendix Two: For Whom was God’s Law Intended by Greg Bahnsen
Appendix Three: The Perpetual Obligation of the Scottish Covenants
Appendix Four: The Westminster Standards and Older Testament Penology (this is 26 pages long)
Appendix Five: Federal Vision Disclaimer
Appendix Six: Appointed for the Defense of the Gospel: The Life and Ministry of Greg L. Bahnsen by Kenneth Gentry
Appendix Seven: Rousas John Rushdoony: A Survey of His Life and Work by Gary North
Appendix Eight: A Summary of the Theonomic Position by Greg Bahnsen
Appendix Nine: George Gillespie and Biblical Civil Law: Did He Change His Mind?
Some Statistics
Over 780 pages long.
Over 250,000 words
Over 1400 footnotes.
Bibliography of more than 300 books and articles.
Includes Theocractic and Theonomic quotes from:
Reformers – John Wycliffe, Walter Brute, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Martin Bucer, John Knox, Heinrich Bullinger, John Hooper, Hugh Latimer, Peter Martyr, Ulrich Zwingli, Johannes Piscator and Theodore Beza.
Puritans – Thomas Cartwright, James Ussher, Jeremiah Burroughs, John Flavel, Thomas Shepherd, John Cotton, Cotton Mather, John Eliot, Thomas Edwards, William Ames, David Clarkson, John Owen, Samuel Bolton, William Perkins, Edward Deering, Thomas Brooks, John Foxcroft, Herbert Palmer, Thomas Vincent, William Jenkyn, Thomas Gilbert, Matthew Poole, Matthew Henry, William Gouge, Thomas Manton, Henry Barrow, Peter Chamberlain, Richard Sibbes, Stephen Charnock, Increase Mather, Thomas Ridgeley, Isaac Ambrose, Thomas Pickering, Richard Vines, Phillip Stubbs, Edward Reynolds, William Reyner, Thomas Goodwin, Richard Greenham, Prelates opposed to Puritan Theonomy and the Geneva Bible.
Early Covenanters – Samuel Rutherford, George Gillespie, Alexander Henderson, Donald Cargill, John Brown of Wamphry, Alexander Shields, James Guthrie, Richard Cameron, James Durham, George Hutcheson, Robert Baillie, Patrick Walker, James Welwood, David Dickson, James Ferguson, 2nd Reformation General Assembly and Parliament.
Later Reformed Writers – John Gill, Thomas Scott, R.L. Dabney, J.H. Thornwell, John Brown of Haddington, Thomas Boston, Ebenezer Erskine, James Fisher, Johannes Wollebius, Junius Brutus, Gardiner Spring, William Symington, C.H. Spurgeon, J.G. Machen, Alexander McLeod, R.P. Joseph, J.G. Vos, Thomas Houston and James Willson. [Most of these are only Theocractic, except for Gill, Scott, Boston, Brown, Erskine, Fisher, Wollebius and Wilson].
Westminster West… are you listening?
