Customer Reviews

By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today

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4 star:		(1)
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What authority does the Law have in the life of the New Testament believer? The answer may disturb you. It did me. Be forewarned. Dr. Bahnsen is not writing comic-book dialog here! This is tough stuff. It demands your attention. It demands thought. But the rewards are great. This book is a blessing. This is the definitive biblical counter to situation ethics and moral relativism. If you are a Christian, you really ought to consider it your duty to find out what the Bible (both Testaments) has to say about issues of morality. What does it really mean to "love your neighbor"? My wager is that most of us Christians don't really know.

By This Standard is a slimmed down version of Bahnsen's larger treatment of Theonomy, Theonomy in Christian Ethics. The shorter version is devoid of lengthy scholarly interaction and extensive footnotes, so it is less helpful for those really wanting to dig into the debate. However, Bahnsen's clear expositional writing makes this the perfect book for folks wanting to learn a sound treatment of Theonomy. Many opponents of theonomic readings of Scripture labor under misconceptions, misrepresentations, and false implications based upon false assumptions about what theonomy actually is. Bahnsen's treatment here is as clear as it gets for the lay reader and is a good primer on the considerations of Biblical law.

I was interested in finding out more about theonomy, being somewhat inclined that way based on my own study and understanding of the Word of God, & I found this book to be a very readable book making the case for the continuing validity of God's commands as revealed in the OT unless clearly withdrawn in the NT. Bahnsen makes many logical points (I particularly like how he uses football rules' & library cards' continuing validity today to argue his point) and supports them with scripture references. I'm not thoroughly convinced, because some of what Paul says, even in the context of some of his supporting texts seems to indicate more nullification of OT law than Bahnsen grants, but in other places the scripture really does seem to support his position (the evidence seems in his favor). I think he makes a very strong case against autonomy and one of the strengths of this book is how he refutes humanistic (the new version) reasoning. In this book he does not go into great detail in regards to what commands do stand firm, he is more interested in simply establishing that many do - which he does well, while balancing it with a wise dose of "general equity" (common example seems to be in OT they were told to build a fence around their roof, we don't have flat roofs anymore, the point is - don't leave a loaded gun around for your neighbor;s kid to shoot etc). It was most interesting to go back and look at my confession of faith in regards to this subject as well, I suggest anyone under the 1689 London Baptist Confession or the Westminster Confession take a look at the chapters on the law of God and civil government, it may challenge you!

This is an excellent book.
I appreciate how the author doesn't negate the Law Word of God, of the as it is the basis
of which the law of the New Testament is founded.
There is as much grace in the Old as there is in the New
There is as much law in the New as the Old.
The law we of the New Covenant are not under is the law of sin and death.

Question: If Jesus contradicted the laws of Moses why didn't the Jews accuse him of this during his trial?

You're right, we're not Jews (or at least I'm not), but we have to have laws. Is it possible we can learn something from the laws in the OT? We still have to have laws for theft. Were the punishments for theft in the OT good ones? Today we have a problem with street fighting and school bullying. I wonder what "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth and bruise for a bruise" would do to street fighting. Do you think that a person who was upset might punch someone else gentler if they knew that some big hairy bloke was going to knock their tooth out in front of a crowd if they knocked this person's tooth out? I think so. I think it would make society a lot more civil. And it would certainly reduce the prison population.

If you are open to the possibility that we can learn something from the laws in the OT take a look. I think you'll find it enlightening.

This is a well-written defence of Theonomy, a strong form of Covenant Theology. I do not give it 5 stars because I think Bahnsen wrong on the issue, but rather than take lots of time here to refute him, I recommend reading the works of John G. Reisinger [available here on Amazon], the leading advocate of New Covenant Theology.