The Institutes of Biblical Law: The Intent of the Law, Volume 3 of 3

The Institutes of Biblical Law #3

by Rousas John Rushdoony

"God's law is much more than a legal code; it is a covenantal law. It establishes a personal relationship between God and man." The first section summarizes the case laws. The author tenderly illustrates how the law is for our good, and makes clear the difference between the sacrificial laws and those that apply today. The second section vividly shows the practical implications of the law. The examples catch the reader's attention; the author clearly has had much experience discussing God's law. The third section shows that would-be challengers to God's law produce only poison and death. Only God's law can claim to express God's "covenant grace in helping us."

Genres: Theology, Law, Christianity, Christian, Nonfiction, History

222 pages, Hardcover

First published February 25, 2015

About the author

Rousas John Rushdoony was a Calvinist philosopher, historian, and theologian and is widely credited as the father of both Christian Reconstructionism and the modern homeschool movement. His prolific writings have exerted considerable influence on the Christian right.

Reviews

[Peter Kiss · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the book that moved me from having mixed feelings about Rushdoony into outright dislike. I excused the lack of exegesis and scholarship in the other works I've read because I figured they were meant to be more practical and introductory, but now that I'm actually reading what is supposed to be a more scholarly work, I'm sorely disappointed. He can't reign in his spiteful and virulent tone for even a second. He doesn't do exegesis, but simply asserts interpretations without arguing for them. This was done in an especially ugly fashion when it came to dietary laws, where he simply said "if you don't like dietary laws, you don't love God." No acknowledgement of all the various New Testament texts abrogating the dietary laws was made. That's not an argument. Work like this is a blight on the exegetical and deliberate grounding for the interpretation of the law started by Bahnsen, and I understand why they didn't get along. I rejoice that there are times where Rushdoony says the truth, but I never want to be put into a position where I have to defend him. This work has really discouraged me.

[Josh McInnis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Out of the three volumes of Rushdoony's Institutes, if you were to only read a single volume this is the volume that I would recommend. It summarizes the main points of theonomy, and even if you approach the subject as someone disposed to disagree with theonomy, this book is essential reading to understand the position.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much better than the second volume. The chapter on Vlad Tepes was an absolute travesty. A rare L for Rushdoony and lost a star on my rating because of it.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is interesting that Rushdoony chose to write a third volume to his Institutes so long after the publication of the first two volumes. In many ways, the third volume serves as a summary of the previous two volumes. There is little new material. It is organized into very short chapters--some less than a page long.

Rushdoony does respond to his critics with more depth in this volume, but he still seems unable to grasp that his understanding of the validity of Old Testament law is entirely bound up with a hyper-covenantalism. His understanding of the Mosaic covenant is such that it all remains in force, with only the minor adjustments made very explicit in the New Testament.

Chapter 71 (I told you the chapters are short!) is entitled "Reason and Natural Law." This is the best critique of natural law in the three volumes, yet he forces his critics into this mold, which seems reductionistic. He writes,

"Natural law leads to the priority of reason which in time means that God’s revealed law is ad hoc law., i.e., for a particular time and place and without wider application. This, in fact, is the conclusion drawn by antinomians."

Again, those that reject his perspective on the continuity of the Mosaic law are antinomians. Perhaps this is an accurate portrayal of the critics he was dealing with, but to reduce the argument to my way or the antinomian highway, is reductionistic and unhelpful.

Why can't we instead agree that God's law has been the same from the beginning, that it was revealed in a particular way to a particular people in a particular time. Though the force of the law remains, certain aspects of it were cultural and temporary. But to Rushdoony it is an all or nothing proposition.

I write this, of course, as a baptist. Perhaps that is obvious. Rushdoony's hyper-covenantalism distorts his understanding of law, but this is an admirable work. The first volume is by far the superior volume, but the third edition is a fine place to look and get a broad understanding of what Rushdoony's understanding of the law is.

My favorite quote from the third volume:

“…many will hold that these laws worked once in a more rural society; it is held that in our present great population centers, such laws would never function. However, in great urban centers today we have communities sometimes both religious and national, where the controls on all are very real because nobody is anonymous. When social institutions other than the state weaken, anonymity sets in, and also lawlessness. Where people are anonymous, crime increases. The modern world is saturated with anonymity because the modern state has undermined all rival powers. The lust for anonymity with some people is a desire to be free to sin without recognition. The growth of the modern city came when transportation had advanced so that goods could be shipped from almost anywhere in the country, but people flocked to the cities because they wanted anonymity. Anonymity or darkness is appealing to many sinners.” p. 61

[Scott Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had the privilege of hearing Dr. Rushdoony speak and lecture on this topic. Though I do not consider myself a theonomist, Dr. Rushdoony helped to encourage discussion on the importance of the law of God to both the individual and society. This standard reference work includes chapters that cover each of the Ten Commandments, with final chapters addressing the place of the law of God in the New Testament and the Church.

[Bradley Endsor · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a final volume to this amazing trilogy. The depth and clarity of Rushdoony's thought here show why many of us Reconstructionist admire him. This is a fantasic book, highly reccomend if you want to understand what the reasons behing God's Law is.

[Jerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Top notch commentary on the Ten Commandments from a Theonomic Position.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most books by Theonomist authors [1] tend to be somewhat long, but one of the things I have appreciated about this author is that he can write a short book on occasion. Mind you, some of his books are really long, but he at least knew how to write a short and succinct book. Someone needs to teach that lesson to some of his compatriots. Not only is the book itself relatively short at a standard 200 pages in length, but the book itself is composed of bite-sized commentaries on different aspects of law. To be sure, the book is a Theonomist book, which means that it talks about grace but doesn't show itself to be particularly gracious to others, and misrepresents Arminian thought as it is wont to do, but the advantage of dealing with a book of this size in this form is that one can read it without getting too upset at the author's lengthy discussion. Instead you get small and insightful examinations about how our society would be benefited by the enforcement of God's laws in our society. Of course, as a Theonomist, the author believes that there will be a reformation in society apart from the return of Jesus Christ.

The roughly 200 pages of this book are made up of 74 short chapters that average a bit under 3 pages apiece. The essays themselves examine a broad degree of subjects, including references to European history (King Alfred and Vlad the Impaler), a wide variety of biblical laws including the Sabbath laws and food flaws, concerns about antinomianism and polytheism and natural law. The author is hostile to Greek philosophy even though the general approach of writers of Theonomy tends to be high on the cerebral and low on the kinder, gentle virtues of mercy and longsuffering. The author was writing this book shortly before his death, and it shows that the author was a bit too tired to carry on his material to the length that he originally planned, but it's still an impressive book and the content of this book is something well worth appreciating. The author comes off as pretty tough-minded, but not unreasonable. If I wrote about God's law and its application to contemporary society with an expectation of internal societal reformation in order to fulfill God's millennial problems and didn't have a great deal of empathy or compassion, what I wrote would probably be a lot like this.

So, will you appreciate this book as much as I did? Do you have a great deal of respect for God's law? Do you enjoy seeing harsh writing about the decline of society and have more tolerance for the logical flaws of the author--such as continual references to the unbiblical Triune God--than the author has for those logical flaws that others have? If so, there is a good chance you will like this book a fair bit. There are a few people who might want more of this author than this book provides, and those people will likely find some of the author's several dozen other books. But for those who find it a bit difficult to read nearly a thousand pages at a time in a book, this book gives a bite-sized critique of contemporary culture that includes personal stories, historical analysis, and biblical exegesis. If you like what this book has to say, you will find at least a few essays to appreciate.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2010...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...