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The Institutes of Biblical Law |  | Author: Rousas John Rushdoony
Publisher: P & R Publishing
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Rating:  27 reviews
Media: Library Binding
Pages: 890
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.8
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6 x 1.8
ISBN: 0875524109
Dewey Decimal Number: 230
EAN: 9780875524108
ASIN: 0875524109
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 27
Masterpiece of "Christian Reconstructionism", for good or for worse March 1, 2010
Clarke H. Morledge (Williamsburg, VA United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Rushdoony is rejected by many Christians and non-Christians alike as being on the lunatic fringe. There is good reason for this, though it is complicated. As John Frame argues, while rightly challenging in many ways, Rushdoony's work is a fine example of how *not* to engage in theological dialogue. Making accusations of "antinomianism" at every turn is not the best way to draw in your audience. I argue that Rushdoony's detailed insight into ignored aspects of history in the Christian era is fascinating and valuable (hence the four star rating), but the theological lessons to be learned do not always hold together. He makes a convincing case for political libertarianism (a.l.a. Ron Paul), but his theonomic vision is frightful to many fellow libertarians. He writes of the dual dangers of expanding militaristic and socialistic powers of the state, but he unfortunately sees fit to condemn interracial marriage. He masterfully makes sense of many Mosaic texts in a plausible way to the modern Christian, but the architecture of his theological argument is confounding. Are we really "sanctified by the law", as Rushdoony suggests? Surely we are "justified by grace", but juxtaposing that with "sanctification by the law" seems to diminish the Gospel.
Nevertheless, perhaps Rushdoony's critics have not read him closely enough. The man was incredibly well read and incredibly prolific. It took me THREE YEARS to get through _The Institutes of Biblical Law_! This is the best case for theonomy I have yet to read. If you follow him carefully, Rushdoony proposes that Christ's theonomic reign will only come as more and more people come to know Christ. Regeneration ALWAYS precedes civil reform. The bulk of the population in any nation (I've heard Rushdoony elsewhere say at least 80% of the population) needs to confess faith in Christ BEFORE biblical law can be implemented fully in a society. State coercion is NOT in Rushdoony's vision. Well, if that is the case, then those who fear the rise of the "Religious Right' have nothing to fear from the likes of Rushdoony. With less than 70% of Americans going to church and less then half of those claiming to be "born again", I think that the evangelical movement will be preoccupied for many years with evangelism and discipleship before it ever gets to the task of theonomic-based governance.
Rushdoony's whole argument for theonomy is based on both his presuppositionalism; i.e. there is no such thing as philosophical "neutrality," and his postmillenialism; i.e. the world is getting better and better all of the time. Presuppositionalism and postmillenialism are not well-understood nor well-embraced within Evangelicalism. A proper appreciation of Rushdoony will fail without an adequate grasp of these two theological concepts.
With this in mind, Rushdoony fans are faced with some intractable problems. First, Rushdoony rightly presupposes the Word of God to be true, but the sad history of Christian Reconstructionism is that the exposition of the biblical text gets mangled up by its interpreters. The theonomic vision gets lost in a sea of biblical disputation. Gary North, a contributor to this volume and his son-in-law, has a falling out with Rushdoony over biblical interpretation. Others have parted ways with Rushdoony and North, too. It appears that much of the reason why John Milton wrote Paradise Lost was one way of coming to grips with the futility of trying to get a bunch of conflicting religious groups together to build a theonomically-governed society in Oliver Cromwell's England.
Secondly, most politically-minded evangelicals do not share the rosy optimism of Rushdoony's postmillenialism. Having the patience to rebuild society by Christian witness and example is not always palatable to those more dispensationally-minded Christians who fear that Christianity is being attacked day-by-day in America. With such a pessimistic mood, it is tempting to use theonomic language to justify grabbing the reigns of political power. In other words, we need to appreciate the whole of Rushdoony's argument, less we misuse him.
 Institutes of Bibilical Law October 13, 2009
P. Southward (Banner Elk NC)
2 out of 12 found this review helpful
This man is a dangerous lunatic. America tried a theocracy and the Puritans today are an embarrassment. Do we need to look further than the Taliban to see what happens when True Believers take charge?
 Great book! June 6, 2009
C. Zimmerman (USA)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I really liked this book.. I agree with a lot of it. I just thought it was funny how the author is so adamant about sticking to the law... Yet the Sabbath was no big deal. LOL! That really made me value the book less, hence the 3 stars. He obviously has a lot of knowledge.. But he's not perfect (no one is). If you understand that, then you can get a lot out of this book. It's interesting, and has a lot of additional resources and information in it.. So I gave it 3 stars.. It would be 5 stars if he wasn't being such a hypocrite about the Sabbath... But that's just my personal opinion, and we all have those.
America Know Your Enemy! October 14, 2008
Akhenaten (Southeastern USA)
11 out of 34 found this review helpful
Rushdoony's "Institutes of Biblical Law" is one of the most influential and vile examples of anti-democratic, un-Constitutional and un-American writings in the vast collection of "Christian" fascist literature. It is important for Americans to be aware of this book and the arguments contained between its covers. Rushdoony creates a black, dystopian vision for the United States, the likes of which would make Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol-Pot proud. Make no mistake, the vitriolic hatred espoused in this book is no different than what you would read in Mein Kampf. The only difference is that Rushdoony tries to legitimize his hatred and violence through passages in the Bible instead of appealing to a sense of nationalism and shared Kultur. Just as it is vital to understand the motivations of our external enemies of democracy (particularly Islamists), we need to understand our internal enemies - those that advocate the sort of destructive political and social architecture outlined in "Institutes of Biblical Law." The foundations of this work are built on nothing but conjecture, opinion, selfishness and dark fantasy.
Read this book, critique it and openly challenge it in the arena of public discourse. To paraphrase the philosopher Karl Popper, there is no reason for those living in an open society to be tolerant of such blatant intolerance when it clearly aims to undermine the society our Founding Fathers designed and we have nurtured here in the United States. This twisted philosophy and disgraceful book is exactly the kind of thing Popper was talking about.
 The Law of the LORD is perfect! March 11, 2008
Michael M. Denna (Sacramento, CA)
6 out of 10 found this review helpful
The modern church is characterized by antinomianism. The clergy and the laity spout forth cliché's and humanistic ideas and claim them as Christian. Modern man struggles with the idea of a perfect law word. Rushdoony, in "The Institutes of Biblical Law Vol. I", tackles this garbage with the idea that the law word of God is the only source of infallible truth we have.
Many humanists and pietistic Christians (which is a redundant statement) will attack this book, because they prefer autonomy to God's law, but Rushdoony shows in this masterful work that the law of God is far superior to any man made law system. It is rather ironic that many in the Church today are just as lawless as their non-Christian neighbors. They reject God's law without really even knowing it. In this book the law of God is examined, and it is found not to be wanting. The book is also full of many great examples of humanistic law that is supposedly so much better than Biblical law, and the entrapments that come with it.
I first read this book 12 years ago. There are many things Rushdoony writes that were a challenge to my thinking. This book, however, is a must read, for any one who has ever struggled with the question of the relevance of the Law of God in the Christian Life and in society. Far too often Christians reject God's law outright, or they simply internalize it. By what standard will we be able to disciple the nation if we reject the law word of our King?
I have also read Volumes 2 and 3 and while I considered the section on community in Book 2 to be very good, nothing in either of these volumes rises to the greatness of the first book.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 27
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