Theonomy in Christian Ethics
By what standard?
Dr. Greg L. Bahnsen (1948-1995) was the scholar-in-residence at the Southern California Center for Christian Studies and an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Southern California, specializing in the field of epistemology (theory of knowledge). He also received M.Div. and Th.M. degrees from Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia. Zie ook Wikipedia en Covenant Media Foundation
Greg Bahnsen, leerde zowel van Rushdoony, die hij ontmoette toen hij nog een tiener was, en Van Til op het Westminster Seminarie, waar hij de eerste student werd die zowel zijn M.Div. en Th. M. graad binnen drie jaar haalde. Volgens North hoopte Van Til dat Bahnsen hem in zijn leerstoel op Westminster zou opvolgen. Terwijl hij pastor was in Californië bijhaalde hij vervolgens zijn Ph.D. in epistemologie en schreef hij de meest analytische rigoureuze verdediging van theonomie.
Bahnsen's theonomie overtuigingen leidde kennelijk tot zijn ontslag van het Reformed Seminarie in Jackson, Mississippi -een ander bastion van Presbyteriaanse wetenschappelijke degelijkheid, waar hij doceerde van 1976 tot 1978- doch niet voordat hij een grote invloed uitoefende op verscheidene van zijn studenten. Vier van hen zijn belangrijke figuren in de beweging geworden:
- Kenneth Gentry, een vooraanstaande verdediger van postmillennialisme en scherp criticus van het dispensational premillennialisme waarin hij eerst getraind was;
- David Chilton, later North's deelgenoot, ondanks latere distantie, toen hij hyper-preterist werd;
- James Jordan , die met North naar Texas vertrok en zich specialiseerde in het toepassen van Reconstructionist gedachtegoed in liturgie en ecclesiologie, doch zich distantieerde van een strikt theonomie positie;
- Gary DeMar, een productief schrijver voor een in Atlanta gebaseerde educatieve bediening 'American Vision' genaamd. Hij is de schrijver van een driedelige serie over God en de Overheid en een prominente speler in de Reconstructionist vurige weerlegging van de populaire criticus Dave Hunt.
Een interview met Greg Bahnsen. Voor een Biografische schets, zie de preteristarchive
Belangrijkste boeken:
Theonomy in Christian Ethics - Phillipsburg, N. J.: Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing Co., 1977, 1984. This is THE major effort to defend the Reconstructionist view of the use of OT law today. He believes that all OT law carries over into the Church Age unless specifically abrogated, (for example, certain ceremonial laws fulfilled by Christ in his death and resurrection). He also propounds the idea that the new covenant should govern how OT law is applied today, and stresses that the regenerated NT believer is now empowered to implement the OT law in conjunction with NT law.
This book, is an extension of Bahnsen's Th.M. thesis for Westminster Seminary. It is an apologetic for biblical law in New Testament times. Written to persuade theologians, it has persuaded laymen, but very few theologians. It provides the theological case that undergirds Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law .
This volume unexpectedly shook the theological establishment in its call for a return to God's law. The aftershocks are being felt to this day. The author claims that God's law is the only perfect standard of righteousness for civil ethics. Twenty-five years later it continues to challenge the church to unashamedly embrace the "Word of God, contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the only rule of faith and life." (Hardback, 563 pages).
Voor een review van John M. Frame zie de Presbyterian Journal, August 31, 1977
By this standard- What is the authority of God's law today? Dr. Bahnsen answers this and many other crucial questions concerning the use of the law. This book presents a simple-to-read introduction to the question of the continuing relevance of biblical law. It shows why a denial of biblical law is antinomian
God's law is Christianity's tool of dominion. Who is to rule on earth, Christ or Satan? Whose word is sovereign, God's or man's? Millions of Christians have not recognized the continuing authority of God's law or its many applications to modern society. They have thereby reaped the whirlwind—cultural and intellectual impotence. But as Bahnsen deftly shows, this doesn't have to be the case.
No other standard: Theonomy and Its Critics
This is Greg Bahnsen's response to criticisms of the theonomic position that have been published or circulated over the last ten years. Bahnsen deals not only with Westminster Theological Seminary's Theonomy: A Reformed Critique , but also with two other brief critical books against him, and with various published articles and typewritten, photocopied responses. One by one, Bahnsen takes his critics' arguments apart, showing that they have either misrepresented his position or misrepresented the Bible. Line by line, point by point, he shows that they have not understood his arguments and have also not understood the vulnerability of their own logical and theological positions.
Theonomy - An Informed Response, 1991 Covenant Media Foundation.
Voor een review zie reformed covenanter
Victory in Jesus - The Bright hope of postmillenialism, Covenant Media Press,1991
This posthumously published book serves as an introduction to postmillennialism, the view that the Kingdom of Christ will triumph in history as the majority of men and nations bow in subjection to King Jesus. The first three chapters were originally lectures, which have been put in written format; they deal with the subjects of the interpretation of Revelation, the millennial question and the triumph of the gospel. The last two chapters are articles previously published in the Journal of Christian Reconstruction – “The Primae Facie Acceptability of Postmillennialism” and “The Person, Work and Present Status of Satan”. In the first article the author demolishes the myths and misrepresentations set forth against postmillennialism, and provides the reader with a wealth of historical evidence – from John Calvin to the older testimonies of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland – that postmillennialism was the Reformed view of eschatology (historically, amillennialism is a Lutheran and Pietistic doctrine, but it has gained wide acceptance among the contemporary Reformed).
Always Ready, Directions for Defending the Faith, 1996
This book equips Christians with the practical "weapons" for their spiritual arsenal that are needed to effectively defend the Christain faith. This book is a compilation of several of Dr. Bahnsen's published works on Christian apologetics, including his Apologetics syllabus, articles on practical apologetic problems (like the problem of evil, the problem of miracles, etc.), and an exposition of Acts 17.
Van Til's Apologetics, readings and analysis, 1998
Reviewed door W. Gary Crampton bij Trinity Foundation y
The Standard Bearer - A Festschrift for Greg L. Bahnsen, 2002
This festschrift is offered to the church as a means to acknowledge the powerful, effective, and broad ministry of Dr. Greg L. Bahnsen. The large scope of Bahnsen's work included: philosophy, presuppositional apologetics, ethics, theology, eschatology, and ecclesiology. And this volume presents essays on all those subjects.
Contributors include:
R. Booth, M. Butler, C. Strevel, K. Clauson, K. Gentry (two essays), L. Oswalt, A. Sandlin, J. Tyne, J. Ventrella, R. Wagner, and a memorable biographical essay from David Bahnsen (his son).
Michael Butler's essay on the current development of Transcendental Arguments for God's Existence makes this book a necessary edition for any scholar's library. Butler discusses the impact of Frame, Van Til, Kelly J. Clark, Gordon Clark, Stroud, Strawson, Korner, Rorty and others on the advancement of TA's. Butler provides answers to many of the recent skeptical probes and denials of TA's.
Chapters consist of:
- Covenantal Antithesis
- Ruler of the Nations
- Theonomy and Confession
- A Revelation of `The Revelation'
- Bahnsen's View of Church and State
- Faith v. Ideology
- Theonomy in the Theology of Calvin
- Apologetic Preaching, and more.
Pushing the Antithesis: The Apologetic Methodology, 2007
Dr. Greg L. Bahnsen believed that to deal with the academics of the day and their arguments against the Christian faith, it is necessary to do battle with them at the highest levels of scholarship using their intellectual tools against them. He could quickly analyze and give direct and compelling answers to all their objections. Prior to his untimely death in 1995, Dr. Bahnsen delivered a series of lectures on apologetics at American Vision s Life Preparation Conference. These lectures are rare in that they are some of the only video presentations of Dr. Bahnsen's teachings. The week-long sessions, presented before high school and college students, set forth the basics of the Christian worldview and the biblical approach to defending the faith. These lessons have been distilled and turned into a one-of-a kind handbook on apologetics
Presuppositional Apologetics, 2008
What once was lost, now is found! Dr. Greg L. Bahnsen, the definitive champion of Cornelius Van Til’s revolutionary Reformed apologetical method, wrote this systematic treatise and defense of Biblical apologetics many years before his untimely death. Dr. Bahnsen received the typeset proofs for editing, but due to the unfortunate accidents of history the only copy was lost. The work, consequently, was never published. In the Lord’s Providence, after some twenty years, friends at Covenant Media Foundation discovered the lost proofs. They recently sent them to American Vision where enthusiastic editors busily began preparing the work for publication. This magnum opus of apologetics lays out the Biblical presuppositional method, provides rigorous Biblical proof, and defends the uniqueness of the method. This is the work we all longed for Bahnsen to write, yet never knew that he already had written it! Now rescued from the dustbin of history, this monument of apologetics will provide must-reading for Christian defenders of the faith for generations to come.
