Reconstructionism

According to Wikipedia Christian Reconstructionism is a religious and theological movement within Evangelical Christianity that calls for Christians to put their faith into action in all areas of life, within the private sphere of life and the public sphere as well. Beliefs characteristic of Christian Reconstructionism include the following:

 *      Calvinism, for its description of individual spiritual regeneration by the Holy Spirit that is required to change people on a personal level before any positive cultural changes can occur,

·       Theonomy: applying the general principles of Old Testament Law and New Testament Law to the corresponding family, church and civil governments (compare with theocracy); while in favor of separation of church and state at the national level, theonomists believe the state is under God and is therefore commanded to enforce God's Law.

·       Postmillennialism, the Christian eschatological belief that God's kingdom began at the first coming of Jesus Christ, and will advance progressively throughout history until it fills the whole earth through conversion to the Christian faith and worldview,

·       The presuppositional apologetics of Cornelius Van Til which holds there is no neutrality between believers and nonbelievers, that the Bible reveals a self-authenticating worldview and system of truth, and that non-Christian, non-Reformed belief systems self-destruct when they become more consistent with their presuppositions[2] or even the presuppositionalist approach of Gordon Clark, and

·       Decentralized political order resulting in minimal state power and laissez-faire economics.

Reconstructionism developed out of conservative Presbyterianism both Reformed and Orthodox. It contends that contemporary application of the laws of Old Testament Israel; i.e., "Biblical Law," form the basis for reconstructing society into, or toward, the Kingdom of God on earth.

Reconstructionism argues that the Bible is to be the governing text for all areas of life, particularly government, education, law, and the arts. It extends beyond merely "social" and "moral" issues like pornography, homosexuality, and abortion. It has formulated a "Biblical world view" with "Biblical principles" by which they examine contemporary matters. Thus; Reconstructionist theologian David Chilton describes it this way: 

            "The Christian goal for the world is the universal development of 

            Biblical theocratic republics, in which every area of life is redeemed

            and placed under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the rule of God's law."

Broadly understood, Reconstructionists believe there are three main areas of governance: family government, church government, and civil government. Under God's covenant, the nuclear family forms the basic unit. The husband remains the head of the family. The wife and children are to live "in submission" to him. In turn, the husband "submits" to Jesus and to God's laws as detailed in the Old Testament. The church has its own ecclesiastical structure and governance. Civil government exists to implement God's laws. All three institutions are under Biblical Law and implementation of those laws is called "theonomy."

The original and defining text of Reconstructionism can be found in the Institutes of Biblical Law, as published in 1973 by Rousas John Rushdoony. This 800-page explanation of the Ten Commandments provides the Biblical "case law" that derives from the commandments and their application today. "The only true order," wrote Rushdoony "is founded on Biblical Law.

All law is religious in nature, he writes. Every non-Biblical law-order represents an anti-Christian religion." In brief, says Rushdoony, "Every law-order is a state of war against the enemies of that order, and all law is a form of warfare."

Gary North, Rushdoony's son-in-law, wrote an appendix to Institutes on the subject of "Christian economics." It is a polemic that serves as a model for the application of "Biblical Principles." Both Rushdoony and younger theologian, Greg Bahnsen, were students of Cornelius Van Til, the Princeton University theologian.  

While Van Til himself never became a Reconstructionist himself, devout Reconstructionists claim him as the father of their movement. According to Gary North, Van Til agreed, "There is no philosophical strategy that has ever worked, except this one; to challenge the lost in terms of the revelation of God in His Bible ... by what standard can man know anything truly? By the Bible, and only by the Bible."

Accordingly, this reasoning that the correct and only way to view reality is through the lens of a Biblical world view is known as presuppositionalism, but according to Gary North, Van Til stopped short of proposing what a Biblical society might look like or how to get there. That is where Reconstructionism begins. While Van Til states that man is not autonomous and that all rationality is inseparable from faith in God and the Bible, Reconstructionists set a course of world conquest or "dominion," because, according to them, the Bible prophesies "inevitable victory."

They further believe "Christians" are the "new chosen people of God." As such, we are commanded to do what "Adam in Eden and Israel in Canaan failed to do; i.e., create the society God requires." Jews, once the "chosen people," failed to live up to God's covenant and therefore they are no longer God's chosen. Rather; Christians of the correct sort, are now the chosen.

Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law consciously echo that major work from the Protestant Reformation--Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. Moreover, Reconstructionists view themselves as the theological and political heirs of Calvin. The theocracy Calvin created in Geneva, Switzerland in the 1500s is one of the political models they are guided by, along with Old Testament Israel and the Calvinist Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Noting the collapse of Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority and the failed presidential bid of Pat Robertson, the Christian Right went to the grassroots and exerted wide influence in American politics across the country. In fact, many credit Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition with much credit for this successful shift to the local level. Others contend that another overlooked reason for the success of the Christian Right is a theological shift since the 1960s and believe the catalyst for this shift was Christian Reconstructionism--arguably the driving ideology of the Christian Right throughout the 1990s.

Their significance is found not in their numbers, but in the power of their ideas and their surprisingly rapid acceptance. Many Conservative Christians are unaware that they hold Reconstructionist ideas. Since its theology is controversial among evangelicals, many that are consciously influenced by it avoid the label.

Now, this may not seem that significant. This furtiveness is significant, however, because of the potency of the ideology. Generally: Reconstructionists seek to replace democracy with theocratic elite that would govern by imposing their interpretation of "Biblical Law."

They would eliminate not only democracy but many of its manifestations: labor unions, civil rights laws, public schools. Women would be mostly relegated to hearth and home. Men insufficiently Christian would be denied citizenship, even executed or someway punished. So severe is this theocracy that it would broaden capital punishment and include such crimes as kidnapping, rape, and murder, and among other things, blasphemy, heresy, adultery, and homosexuality.

This ideology has moved beyond the works of a small group of scholars and now informs a wide swath of conservative Christian thought and action. While many Reconstructionist political positions are commonly held conservative views, what is significantly important is that Reconstructionist views have created a comprehensive program, with Biblical justifications for far right political policies.

Many post-World War II conservative, anticommunist activists were also conservative Christian views, even if secondary. However, Reconstruction calls for conservatives to be Christians first by building a church-based political movement from their conservatism. Throughout much of their short history, they have remained an ideology searching for a constituency. Their influence has now grown beyond the founders' expectations and as author Gary North observes, "We once were shepherds without sheep. No longer."

They hold enough truth to catch attention from conservative Christians. They hold enough false teaching to be feared by most Christians and to be typed as dangerous politically and un-American by all Americans.

I am,

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