Thoms Aquinas #3 (Bible Analysis)

Aquinas number three biblical analysis focuses on the need to return to the original intent of the law of God, as summarized in Exodus 20 through 24, rather than the original intent of the US Constitution. The analysis examines the book of the covenant in Exodus, which defines the model for a Christian nation. It emphasizes the importance of both the Ten Commandments and the civil ordinances that define them. The analysis also highlights God's concern for foreigners and the need to show love and respect towards them. However, the author of a book on Christian nationalism fails to distinguish between natural revelation and natural theology, leading to a flawed understanding of biblical theology. The author's definition of Christian nationalism is vague and lacks a focus on the law of God and the national covenant. The analysis criticizes the US Constitution for not aligning with God's law and emphasizes the importance of embracing God's civil laws for perfect justice. The author argues This is Aquinas number three biblical analysis and John at the very end of Aquinas number two there's a real awkward sentence just before the promotion that makes it a really weak ending if you could eliminate that little sentence it's got some really long gaps there either remember perhaps eliminate the gaps but either way it's a weak ending so I'll go ahead with this one. Welcome once again everybody to TheGreatBibleReset.com. Our thesis is that the great need of the hour is not a return to the original intent of the US Constitution but rather a return to the original intent of the law of God as summarized in Exodus 20 through 24 and these two are not synonymous and just a reminder that we're looking today at the third P in the papal era pod the first two being st. Anselm and John of Salisbury whose writings are all contributing to the new radical separation of church and state following the papal revolution of 1075 with both church and state separating from the law of God. As we seek to understand the impact of Thomas Aquinas we've developed kind of a subtext or a secondary theme this week of how this relates to the current focus on Christian nationalism in particular a book called In Defense of Christian Nationalism by Stephen Wolf and published by Canon Press. Now Mr. Wolf would have done well to have started with the book of the covenant as the foundation for his analysis of Christian nationalism but he admits that in the introduction of his starting point is not biblical theology. In the middle of the book of Exodus we find five chapters that define the model for a Christian nation and thus true Christian nationalism and you can't define Christian nationalism without referring to these biblical texts. God calls it the book of the covenant in Exodus 24 it was first delivered, God's first revelation to Moses with the Ten Commandments and this is the Mosaic Constitution if you will for a Christian culture true Christian nationalism. The Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 are defined by the civil ordinances in chapters 21 through 23 and solemnized in chapter 24 where God declares it to be quote the book of the covenant that's the name God gave it. For example we have the eighth commandment thou shalt not steal defined in the case law requirement in the next chapter or in chapter 22 I believe if you steal one sheep you have to pay back two sheep so this is double equity in restitution this is the gold standard the Michelin stars the divine touchstone for all Christian nationalism which sadly Wolf and a host of other Christian scribes studiously or insociantly ignore but God presents it as a unit a book and you can't cling to the Ten Commandments and neglect the specific ordinances that define them in Exodus 21 through 23. Now it's noteworthy that the specific case laws of chapter 21 and 22 yield to a non-legal social ethic between Exodus 22 21 and Exodus 23 9 both these verses contain the phrase you shall not oppress a stranger thus they serve as bookends for a series of commands that are not accompanied by a legal penalty rather they are admonitions to specific acts of love toward fellow citizens in the kingdom of God and specifically foreigners. God's concern for strangers or foreigners who had no part in the government is so great that God says if you afflict them at all I will kill you it's very blunt there in the text the minority especially on believers is to be respected and protected in a Christian commonwealth an example is helping an enemy with his overloaded donkey. Now in spite of these admirable features the author falls into the same trap or matrix if you will that has ensnared Christian social political commentators since the founding of the church. The problem ranges all the way from St. Augustine's infatuation with neoplatonism all the way through to Aquinas' devotion to Aristotelian logic as a means of validating God's revelation or analyzing and integrating the Justinian code as we saw yesterday. So what we have is a natural law counterfeit one more natural law counterfeit at the heart of it is a failure to distinguish between natural or general revelation and so called natural theology or natural law and at the heart of it it's a fallacy of definition. The textbook definition of natural revelation is God's general demonstration of certain aspects of his being in nature notably his creativity his power his judgment his provision things like that and your Bible school professor will tell you or has told you that this general revelation is incomplete but it's sufficient to condemn us and drive us to his special revelation in the Bible for everything else we need to know including political theory. Now the fail error creeps in when forgetting our Bible school professor we assume from general revelation the existence in nature of the rudiments of a natural theology or a natural law and it's held that this natural theology may be parsed from nature by quote reason rightly understood end of quote to validate biblical theology Anselm for example claimed to approve the incarnation by human reasoning in natural law in the attempt he exalted the authority of human reason above the authority of the Word of God and this was in spite of his famous dictum I believe in order that I may understand and reportedly some of his students at one point said well sir can you prove this apart from the Bible and he fell into this he fell into he accepted the dare and fell into the snare now blissfully ignored is the debilitating effect of the fall on both the mind of man and the created order i.e. nature as we see in Romans 8 19 through 22 where it says that creation itself groans for the revealing of the sons of God neither one is a reliable guide for anything apart from revelation taken together the potential for human humanistic speculation is exponential and wolf takes them together wolf falls into a similar trap he frankly admits that this is a work of Christian political theory it is not over all a work of political theology I assume the reformed theological tradition which is never really defines and so I make little effort to exegete biblical text I am neither a theologian nor a biblical scholar I have no training in moving from scriptural interpretation to theological articulation so he admits right up front that he doesn't know how to interpret the Bible and he sounds exactly like Immanuel Kant where he distinguished where Kant distinguished between noumenal things in themselves or transcendental spiritual versus things as they are in the in the phenomenal and so Kant said well you know he humbly admitted that I you know we can't understand that the spiritual things are way beyond it so we just have to stick with the phenomenal things basically of natural law so wolf is essentially a Kantian he defines Christian nationalism as a totality of national action consisting of civil laws and social customs conducted by a Christian nation as a Christian nation in order to procure for itself both heavenly and earthly good in Christ in effect this is government of the people by the people and for the people rather than government of by and for Christ the King you know it's too vague it's too man-centered the Great Commission calls for active discipleship of the nations and legal reform is at the heart of that incrementally as Deuteronomy says so keep them and do them for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples and that's Deuteronomy 4 6 through 8 the peoples are going to see you obeying God's law I mean that the Gentile nations will see Israel obeying God's law and the blessing that comes from that and then they will imitate Israel Israel was a an example nation a priestly nation for that purpose and for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples this definition leaves out Wolf's definition leaves out the law of God and the all-important national covenant which is the defining characteristic of a Christian nation is that the commitment of that nation to the law of God in terms of its judicial criminal justice system and its cultural norms and thus a Christian nation the corporate body prince priest prophet and people according to Ezekiel 5 7 and 7 26 must enter into covenant with God in order to to order their legal criminal justice system in accord with his law and as we've noted the US Constitution fails miserably in this regard in article 6 in particular says all the laws made in pursuance thereof in article 6 has ballooned into a bureaucratic nightmare of freedom stifling regulations binding the gullible gulliver try saying that ten times firmly to the deck and in 2020 God began tightening the screws but God forbid God forbid we should return to those tyrannical Old Testament laws a little sarcasm there the designation civil laws in Wolf's definition is too vague elsewhere he refers to plastic words that may be filled with virtually any content the term civil laws is such a plastic word a container that may be filled with any content might be a hearty brew or it might be a brew laced with arsenic we must embrace God's civil laws for he alone defines perfect justice and we fail to do that in the United States Constitution this is opposed to United States Constitution where we hear the phrase rules-based society all the time not the US Constitution but the United States where we hear that phrase rules-based society all the time and this has nothing to do with the rule of law especially biblical law it's like the rules that the neighborhood bully imposes on the rest of the neighborhood as time rolls along but now comes Dr. Wolf with his modern rendition of the Paulicraticus and a declaration that revealed theology serves to complete politics but it is not the foundation end of quote instead of the Word of God Dr. Wolf believes that politics must rest on a combination of quote natural and supernatural propositions in order to integrate natural and supernatural truth into a systematic political theory end of quote this refusal to build political theory on sola scriptura scripture alone is a recipe for disaster we've been there we've done that for the last 2,000 years you know whatever happened to 2nd Timothy 3 16 and 17 all scripture is given by inspiration of God that the man of God may be complete thoroughly furnished for every good work including political theory yeah including political theory but Wolf draws an artificial line between political theory and political theology quote the primary reason that this work is political theory is that I proceed from the foundation of natural principles or he means natural law well Christian theology assumes natural theology as an ancillary component no it does not let me repeat that well Christian theology assumes natural theology as an ancillary component Christian political theory treats natural principles as the foundation the origin the source of political life even Christian political life that's Dr. Wolf elevates natural law above biblical law in the formulation of political theory and this is a full-out frontal assault on the authority the ultimate authority of the law of God in the political realm Wolf leans on the weak read of Thomistic natural law when God insists on the firm staff of Bible law Wolf points the way to a renewal of patriotic Christian nationalism when God calls for humble rejection of this proud shibboleth of Americans exceptionalism and please check out our commentary and in the bookstore at in the Christian school classical Christian school at Kingsway classical Academy calm and our store at boomers-alive.com which supports the school and thank you for being here today and look forward to seeing you tomorrow for a an interview that will go into this in quite a bit more detail until then take care