1995 Issue 5
For over twenty years, Dr. Greg Bahnsen has been advocating the normativity of all of God's law. Christ's coming has not done away with the authority of God's law, but has "confirmed" its authority in exhaustive detail. Critic after critic has stepped into the ring to challenge him. Some challenges have been better than others, but all of them have failed to provide exegetical refutation of Bahnsen's thesis.
Recently, another attack has been mounted upon theonomic ethics. Ligon Duncan, Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, has written a paper entitled What About Theonomy! In this short treatise, it is Duncan's contention that theonomy cannot be sustained theologically, historically, or confessionally.
The general public enjoyed Jesus' preaching, because it was lively, authoritative, well-organized, practical, interesting, bold and true in contrast with "the lifeless repetitions and senseless trivialities" of the ordinary rabbis and other teachers. - Plummer (Luke 4:20) "...and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon Him."
This vivid description of Jesus' preaching is obviously that of an eye-witness from whom Luke obtained this information. The intense interest of His hearers was "fixed" on Jesus as He spoke because of His fame as a powerful teacher and miracle-worker, because he was brought up among them, and because of His countenance and manner of reading the Scripture.
It is vital that we understand the relationship that existed between the colonies and the King. They had no legal relationship with England or with the English Parliament. They were ruled by the King and their own legislatures. They had their charters from the King. There was therefore no connection with England at all other than sharing the same monarch. A number of things need to be remembered:
1. Each of the colonies was self-governing. Each had their own legislatures and each piece of legislation was subject to the King's veto.
In attending a Christian and Bible based food and weight control program called Weigh Down, I had to address the subject of gluttony. I have often jokingly remarked at church dinners, "Guttony ceased with the Apostolic age," or "Paul said to buffet (as in food-buffet) our bodies." All joking aside now, what is gluttony! If a person is "over weight" does it mean that he is a glutton? Is all obesity the result of gluttony?
First of all, we must be careful that we do not define gluttony as enjoying food and merely eating a lot. Secondly we should not assume that because someone is over weight that they are gluttons. How much is "over weight"! How much is "over eating"! How much can a person weigh and be a Christian! If it is a sin to be over weight or to over eat, then it would not be just a matter of personal self-discipline but church discipline for anyone judged to be over weight or to over eat.
