Church Matters: A New Christian Authoritarianism?: Christian Nationalism, Theonomy, and Magisterial Protestantism

What is the mission of the church? Provoked by secularism’s growing dominance in culture, a growing number of Christians have begun arguing the church needs to undertake nation building through culture war. Some identify as Theonomists, others as Magisterial Protestants, many as Christian Nationalists. Differences exist between these groups, but all of them want all Ten Commandments or the Apostles' Creed placed front and center in a nation’s founding documents. Many would also shrink the scope of religious liberty. Yet is this what Jesus had in mind when he sent his church into the world to make disciples? This issue of Church Matters will argue that it isn’t. These authoritarian systems fail to recognize that nations can’t be saved; only people can. And it’s saved people gathering in churches who bear Jesus’s name, not governments. Jesus promised victory to his Church, not to the countries where his churches live as exiles and pilgrims.Table of ContentsEditor's NoteAuthoritarianism and Gospel Authority A New Christian Authoritarianism by Jonathan Leeman What Authority Has God Given to Governments? by Jonathan Leeman Say No to Christian Nominalism by Jonathan LeemanTheonomy and Christian Nationalism Basics Theonomy Primer: What Is It and How Does It Work? by Tom Hicks Reconstruction Theonomy Vs. General Equity Theonomy by Joseph Thigpen The Many Faces of Christian Nationalism by John WilseyTheological Critique Theonomy: Serious Theology, Serious Politics, Seriously Wrong by Albert Mohler The Noahic Covenant's Importance for Government by David VanDrunen Is It Possible to Be a Baptist Christian Nationalist? by Matthew Emerson Postmillenialism and Theonomy by David Schrock Relating Moses's Law to Christians by Jason DeRouchieFour Critiques of Theonomy from Three Perspectives A Presbyterian Perspective: The Intellectual and Sociological Origins of the Christian Reconstructionist Movement by Ligon Duncan A 1689 Baptist Perspective: Confessionalism and Theonomy by Justin Perdue A Progressive Covenantal Perspective: Paul and the Tripartite Division of Moses's Law by Joshua Greever A Progressive Covenantal Perspective: Theonomy and Moses's Law by Jason DeRouchieHistory, Culture, and Conversations Theonomy and Sharia Law by Matthew Bennett Culture Warriors: The Good and The Bad by Michael Horton Against Religious Establishment in Baptist Political Theology by Nathan Finn To Study History, Exercise Virtue by John Wilsey Utopian Seductions by Matthew Arbo John Gill on Theonomy by Ian Clary Government's Two-Edged Sword by Matt Martens Charlemagne and the Legacy of Christian Political Violence by Dustin AsburyPastoral Encouragements The Aim of Preaching in an Increasingly Hostile Culture to Christianity by John Piper Three Building Blocks for a Christian's Political Theology by Kevin DeYoung What Is a Greater Grief: A Compromised Church or a Compromised Nation? by Jeremy Walker "God Is (Not) an Englishman" by Jamie Southcombe Baptist Covenant Theology: A Pastor's Best Defense Against Theonomy by Jeff Wiesner Ten Diagnostic Questions for the Potential Ideologue by Ken Barbic How I Went Too Far with Politics by Dave Brown International Pastors on Culture War—Why or Why Not? by Josh Manley, Sam Masters, Benny, Johnny Lithell Samples of Public Prayers Prayed by Pastors by Mark Dever, Juan Sanchez, Jaime Owens, Ross ShannonBook Reviews The Case for Christian Nationalism, by Stephen Wolfe by Andrew Walker On Earth as in Heaven, by Peter Leithart by Dan Darling Survival and Resistance in Evangelical America, by Crawford Gribben by Joseph Thigpen Empires of Dirt, by Douglas Wilson by Paul Alexander