The Balance and Protection Provided by Biblical Law
Man is only allowed to execute judgment where that legal standard has been met. God’s laws provide balance and protection for all men.
- Mark R. Rushdoony,
Chalcedon has always stood against humanism and thus has repeatedly denounced its inevitable political manifestation —statism. Our position has been the advocacy of liberty not because the individual is sovereign (libertarianism) but because God’s sovereignty precludes man’s sovereignty and any attempt on his part to play god over others.
Strangely enough, we are often wrongly seen as advocating a very repressive form of statism because our moral standards are based on an admittedly strict Biblical law. It is presumed we would, given the opportunity, enforce everything we believe by civil authority.
All God’s laws are morally binding, but not all His laws even carried a civil penalty. Capital crimes required a strict threshold of two witnesses. Think about that next time someone accuses Christian Reconstructionism of advocating a repressive civil authority. Take for instance, the acts of adultery or of homosexuality. How could there be two witnesses to those acts which occur in private? The fact is, most such acts could not be prosecuted unless they were done so openly and flagrantly as to constitute an act of civil defiance. Most sexual crimes would be very difficult to prosecute in a Biblical legal system.
A number of years back, a woman in Florida was found not guilty of murdering or even harming her daughter. The fact was, the prosecution had no evidence that linked her to the death. Yet, some have expressed outrage at the verdict, ignoring the implications had a conviction been made on the basis of the state prosecutor’s conjectures.
Biblical law made provision for public atonement for murders that were unsolved. God’s justice, we must remember, provided not only for a moral standard, but also for a legal standard for both prosecutors and defendant. Man is only allowed to execute judgment where that legal standard has been met. God’s laws provide balance and protection for all men.
- Mark R. Rushdoony
Mark R. Rushdoony graduated from Los Angeles Baptist College (now The Master’s College) with a B.A. in history in 1975 and was ordained to the ministry in 1995.
He taught junior and senior high classes in history, Bible, civics and economics at a Christian school in Virginia for three years before joining the staff of Chalcedon in 1978. He was the Director of Chalcedon Christian School for 14 years while teaching full time. He also helped tutor all of his children through high school.
In 1998, he became the President of Chalcedon and Ross House Books, and, more recently another publishing arm, Storehouse Press. Chalcedon and its subsidiaries publish many titles plus CDs, mp3s, and an extensive online archive at www.chalcedon.edu.
He has written scores of articles for Chalcedon’s publications, both the Chalcedon Report and Faith for all of Life. He was a contributing author to The Great Christian Revolution (1991). He has spoken at numerous conferences and churches in the U.S. and abroad.
Mark Rushdoony lives in Vallecito, California, his home of 43 years with his wife of 45 years and his youngest son. He has three married children and nine grandchildren.