This is part VII in my response to one of the dumbest articles ever written by a Seminary prof. His name is Andrew Walker. The reason it is so dumb is that all of this has been answered in the past and yet he puts pen to paper to recycle all this again as if he is being original. This article is posted on “The Godless Coalition” Platform.
AW wrote,
Within natural law, then, Theonomy ends up being unnecessary. Why? No biblical evidence suggests society can only obtain just conditions if a religious consensus is secured. Of course it’s desirable for religious consensus to exist, but to make that the standard of justice means that justice will always be elusive (and in fallen, penultimate societies, it is).
BLMc responds,
1.) That’s fine except pinning this much ability on Natural law is contrary to the Belgic Confession of Faith and so contrary to the Scriptures. To champion Natural law in this fashion diminishes the reality of the noetic effects of original sin. To champion Natural law in this fashion misses the reality that there is no consensus anywhere on natural law. To champion Natural law in this fashion misses the reality that for every philosophical school that exists there is a different and so competing codification of natural law. Which natural law are we going to navigate by? Appealing to natural law as the norm that norms all realm of nature norms is like appealing to jello to serve as gorilla glue to hold social-orders together. In brief it is a dream only an academic could believe is true.
2.) The second sentence in the paragraph above is mind boggling. Where does this man find “just conditions” where a religious consensus does not exist? Remember … “just conditions” can only be adjudicated as present as measured by the standard of God’s Word. Walker cannot appeal to the presence of “just conditions” in a social order unless those “just conditions” are “just conditions” as God’s Word defines “just conditions.”
Would Walker argue we have “just conditions” in our social order –a social order that certainly has no religious consensus? What society that did not have a religious consensus would Walker march in front of us as an example of a social-order where “just conditions” existed?
3.) Remember, as we have said here “just conditions” can only be measured by God’s standard of justice. Does Walker really want to argue that justice can be had apart from God’s standard of justice?
And there can be no doubt that in a fallen world, as even in a social-order that has a Christian consensus, perfect justice is never going to obtain. But to suggest that all because elusive justice as an absolute can’t be obtained we should therefore give up on pursuing justice as achieved by a Christian consensus and as measured by God’s standard is just foolishness.
AW wrote,
This is why God has given a natural law, which predates the Mosaic covenant and offers a better foundation for morality without that covenant’s specificity. We don’t need Israel’s civil law to inform us that such things as murder or bestiality are wrong. The covenant of creation mediated through natural revelation tells us this.
BLMc responds,
1.) Understand what Walker is saying is that it makes perfect sense that God’s chosen, covenant nation would get a moral law inferior to natural law. If Natural law is superior to God’s covenant law then why did God bother to give His covenant law to Israel? Maybe God gave them inferior covenant law as opposed to the superior Natural Law because God wanted His people to be inferior to the Nations around them who would have still have access to the superior Natural law?
2.) Indefinite Natural Law as limited by the noetic effects of the fall offers a better foundation for morality than God’s explicit law-Word? Right… And Andrew Walker could defeat Greg Bahnsen in a debate.
3.) I bet if I debated Andrew Walker I could prove, by using Natural Law, that Bestiality is perfectly normative.
AW wrote,
Again, Theonomy insists on applying the Old Testament’s penal code to today. But a better use of the biblical storyline grasps that modern nation-states are to pursue a just order and prudentially wise criminal sanctions—which is why, for example, it’s fine to imprison for offenses that Scripture prohibits without executing the offenders. We can look to other covenants in Scripture, such as the creation and the Noahic covenants, to arrive at a system of morality required for society—without believing that societies are just only insofar as they mimic Israel.
BLMc responds,
1.) Prisons are not Biblical and should be eschewed. Where does Walker find Natural law teaching that prisons are where we should storehouse and train criminals?
2.) “Just order” by whose standard? “Wise criminal sanctions” by whose standard?
3.) Where in the “biblical storyline” do we “grasp that modern nation-states are to pursue a just order and prudentially wise criminal sanctions” over against the penal code we find in Scripture as shaped by general equity? I want Walker to provide proof of this from the biblical storyline.
4.) The Noahic covenant tells us what the crime is for adultery? For sodomy? For rape? Chapter and verse please Andrew.
5.) The reality that theonomy admits that the general equity alters the application of the law means that theonomy isn’t seeking to mimic Israel
