Gary North and Gary DeMar in the Christian Reconstruction Movement take social justice to another level. They teach that the church should practice social justice to reconstruct society in order to bring in the kingdom.
The author, in this section, will demonstrate that Christian Reconstructionists misinterpret social justice because the advocates misinterpret the Cultural Mandate, the Law of Moses, and Millennial promises.
Gary North writes that the church should provide, “health care, education, welfare, social security, and many other social needs.”[1] He explains how this social reform can happen:
Every revolution needs slogans. Here is mine: politics fourth. First, comes personal faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Second, comes Church renewal. There can be no successful reformation of society without first beginning a reformation of the Church. Third, comes family renewal. This involves pulling your children out of public schools. Fourth, comes local politics. At a minimum, this would involve public protests against abortion. From there we go to state and national politics.[2]
Therefore, all Christians who have not pulled their children out of public schools or protested at abortion clinics are not, according to North, fulfilling God’s mission.
The Theonomy
Charles Ryrie calls this movement theonomy[3] and defines theonomy as the state of being governed by God.[4] This governance by God is through the Law of Moses. This social reform of society based on Genesis 1:28 is called the Cultural Mandate. Interpreting the Cultural or Creation Mandate as operative today for the church, however, is incorrect.
The Cultural Mandate
God gave Adam dominion over all creation before the Fall into sin according to Genesis 1:28 when God said, “Subdue it and have dominion over ... the earth.” This is why Christian Reconstruction is also called Dominion Theology.[5] This truth is similarly stated in Hebrews 2:5-8a. The Fall, however, changed everything. Because of man’s Fall into sin, man does not now have dominion over creation. The same mandate is repeated after the Fall in Genesis 9:1 without the commands “subdue” and “have dominion over.” The author of Hebrews also marks this change in Hebrews 2:8b: “But now we see not yet all things put under him.”
Gary North and Gary DeMar in their book Christian Reconstruction quote Genesis 1:28 as the basis for Christian Reconstructionism several times but never Genesis 9:1 nor Hebrews 2:5-8 which record God’s reversal of man’s role because of his rebellion against God.
What about the modern slavery issue in light of Christian Reconstructionism? What is the church’s responsibility for this social injustice? There are more slaves today with human and sex trafficking than before the Civil War. Free the Slaves[6] reports there are 21 million slaves today who are forced to work without pay. In April 2014, it was reported that forty people had been arrested for human trafficking in North Carolina, including thirty in Winston-Salem.[7] Tragically, children and young people are bought or kidnapped for prostitution.
How did the apostle Paul respond to the slavery issue in the Roman Empire? He advised slaves and their masters how to treat each other as Christians. Why did Paul not raise the inhumane treatment of slaves who were equally made in the image of God?
Homer Kent writes that slavery in the Roman Empire could be considerably harsher than under the Mosaic Law. However, one must not generalize from the cases of outrageous abuse which have been publicized, and erroneously suppose that such were typical of first-century practice …. The difference between an average urban slave and a poor freeman was more a matter of principle than of practice …. Such slaves functioned as clerks, accountants, doctors, nurses, teachers, advisors, musicians, and artists. For various reasons, therefore, a poor freeman might sell himself into slavery in order to better his status.[8]
Also, Paul indirectly dealt with slavery by winning slaves and their masters to Christ and then encouraging the masters to free their slaves (Philemon 15-21).
Are Christians against human and sex trafficking? Absolutely! While abolishing human and sex trafficking is not the mission of the church, Christians still can get involved in this social justice issue in order to do the mission of the church which in part is to witness and win the lost to Christ. The mission, however, is not the reconstruction of society by the abolition of slavery.
The Law of Moses
How does The Christian Reconstruction Movement propose reconstructing society? By placing our nation under the Law of Moses. Not just the Moral Law but under also the Civil Law of Moses with capital punishment for a multitude of sins. Reconstructionists espouse “the continuing validity and applicability of the whole law of God including the Mosaic case laws as the standard by which individuals, families, and civil governments should conduct their affairs.”[9]
This use of the law, according to Gordon R. Lewis and Bruce Demarest in their Integrative Theology[10], means capital punishment for a rebellious son (Deut 21:18-21), witchcraft (Ex 22:18), bestiality (Ex 22:19), adultery (Lev 20:10), homosexuality (Lev 20:13), and blasphemy (Lev 23:16).[11] According to Christian Reconstruction Movement, the Law is a means of sanctification.[12] Paul wrote clearly in Romans 6:14 that believers are not under the Law. North and DeMar say Romans 6:14 is prohibiting the law as a means of salvation.[13] Paul’s intention in making this statement in Romans 6:14 is not salvation but sanctification. Paul says earlier in Romans 6 to Christians, “Yield not to sin.” The context is sanctification. In Galatians, Paul argues that the Law is not a means of justification (Galatians 3, 4) nor a means of sanctification (Galatians 5, 6). The means of sanctification according to Paul is yielding to the Holy Spirit, not placing yourself under the law (Galatians 5:16-23). Under the law in the Old Testament adulterers were stoned, but in this church age according to 1 Corinthians 5, adulterers are church disciplined not stoned.
Postmillennialism
The Christian Reconstruction Movement is post-millennial in believing that the church will bring in the kingdom not only through the gospel but through social and political activism.[14] The Biblical teaching is that Christ brings in His pre-millennial kingdom according to Revelation’s chronological outline: the Second Coming to Earth in Revelation 19 and the 1000-year millennial reign in Revelation 20 and the New Heaven in Revelation 21, 22.
The Christian Reconstruction Movement is joined by Prosperity Gospel advocates in believing that the kingdom is now with the prosperity promises of the millennium being presently experienced.[15] “Kingdom Now” is the Prosperity Gospel wing of the Christian Reconstruction Movement. A proof text referenced by Gary North and Gary DeMar is Isaiah 65:17-25. These millennial promises of prosperity include long life as before the flood. How can this longevity of life become a present reality according to Christian Reconstruction? The reconstruction of society will include better medicine, health care, and technology so that these millennial prosperity promises come to pass now.
Wayne Grudem, referring to passages like Isaiah 65, correctly teaches that these promises in Isaiah will be fulfilled in the future millennium because they are not being fulfilled today nor will they be fulfilled in eternity:
Several Old Testament passages seem to fit neither in the present age nor in the eternal state. These passages indicate some future stage in the history of redemption which is far greater than the present church age but which still does not see the removal of all sin and rebellion and death from the earth.[16]
Christian Reconstructionism is a misinterpretation of social justice because of a misinterpretation of the Cultural Mandate, the Law of Moses, and Millennial promises.
[1] Gary North and Gary DeMar, Christian Reconstruction: What It Is, What It Isn’t (Tyler, Tex: Inst for Christian Economics, 1991), 126.
[2] Ibid., 124, 125.
[3] Charles C. Ryrie, Basic Theology: A Popular Systematic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth, New Edition edition (Chicago, Ill: Moody Publishers, 1999), 231.
[4] Ibid., 515.
[5] North and DeMar, Christian Reconstruction, 65.
[6] “Free the Slaves,” accessed November 28, 2016, http://www.freetheslaves.net/.
[7] “40 People Arrested across NC for Human Trafficking | myfox8.com,” accessed November 9, 2015, http://myfox8.com/2014/04/17/30-people-arrested-in-winston-salem-for-human-trafficking/.
[8] Homer A. Kent, Treasures of Wisdom: Studies in Colossians and Philemon (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Pub Group, 1978), 156, 157.
[9] North and DeMar, Christian Reconstruction, 82.
[10] Gordon R. Lewis and Bruce A. Demarest, Integrative Theology, Three Volumes in One edition (Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan, 1996).
[11] Ibid., 352.
[12] North and DeMar, Christian Reconstruction, 105.
[13] Ibid., 100, 102.
[14] Ibid., 59, 60; 127.
[15] Ibid., 127.
[16] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Leicester, England : Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan, 1994), 1127.