Affirmations and Denials
Philonomy articulates the common ground historically shared by Reformed Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists on the continuing relevance of God’s law. It is not a position between camps; it is the ground on which multiple camps can stand together.
A. Law, Love, and Christ
We affirmthat the greatest summary of the law is love—love for God and love for neighbor.
We denythat the word *love* alone is sufficient to define God's character or the concrete obligations He requires.
We affirmthat the fullest revelation of God's character is found in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as revealed in Holy Scripture.
We denythat the law can be properly understood apart from Christ.
B. Salvation and Obedience
We affirmthat justification is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
We denythat any personal obedience is meritorious in God's sight.
We affirmthat the Christian loves the law of God and desires to obey Him in every sphere of life.
We denythat the moral law of God has been annulled for the Christian as a rule of life.
C. The Moral Law and the Ten Commandments
We affirmthat the Mosaic law reveals God's eternal moral character, ultimately disclosed in Christ.
We denythat New Testament ethics can be fully understood apart from the whole counsel of Scripture, including the Mosaic law.
We affirmthat the Ten Commandments are unique within the Mosaic law as a summary of the moral law written on the human heart and are binding in all times and places when properly interpreted.
We denythat the abrogation of the Mosaic covenant nullifies their binding authority.
We affirmthat the Ten Commandments contain typical and ceremonial elements that must be rightly interpreted to discern their enduring moral substance.
We denythat any commandment is wholly ceremonial or entirely abrogated.
We affirmthat laws whose moral substance is grounded in the creation order — the image of God, the distinction of kinds, the institution of marriage — possess enduring moral force that does not depend on multi-epoch textual attestation.
We denythat the absence of explicit pre-Mosaic or post-Mosaic restatement renders a creation-grounded prohibition morally uncertain or non-binding.
D. Case Law and General Equity
We affirmthat the Mosaic law contains multiple forms of legislation beyond the Decalogue.
We denythat these other forms are irrelevant or unhelpful in explicating the moral law.
We affirmthat categorizing Mosaic legislation can be complex and that individual laws may contain mixed elements.
We denythat this complexity excuses neglect of the law's moral instruction.
We affirmthat Mosaic case law provides authoritative examples for understanding the moral requirements of the Ten Commandments.
We denythat Israel-specific forms are morally binding, while insisting that their underlying moral reasoning must be carefully examined and applied where appropriate.
We affirmthat the identification of general equity involves both synchronic analysis (examining a law's presuppositions, form, function, and Decalogue mapping within the Torah itself) and diachronic analysis (tracking the formal reason across redemptive-historical epochs), and that these approaches are complementary, not competitive.
We denythat either synchronic or diachronic analysis alone constitutes a complete hermeneutic for identifying general equity in every case.
We affirmthat New Testament citation of a Mosaic law is confirmatory evidence of that law's general equity, demonstrating that the apostles themselves recognized its enduring moral substance.
We denythat New Testament citation is constitutive of general equity, as though a law's moral substance depends on apostolic restatement; the binding force comes from the law's relationship to the Decalogue, not from its reappearance in the epistles.
E. Civil Authority, Natural Law, and General Equity
We affirmthat the civil magistrate is subordinate to God's moral law and should govern in light of the full breadth of divine revelation.
We denythat judicial and casuistic law is relevant only to the civil sphere; its moral instruction applies to all areas of life.
We affirmthe reality of natural law as God's moral law written on the human heart, so that all men possess an innate awareness of right and wrong sufficient to render them without excuse before God.
We denythat natural law, though real, remains undefaced by sin or sufficient in itself to guide fallen man aright in matters of truth, justice, and civil order.
We affirmthat general equity requires the application of the underlying moral principles of Mosaic judicial law, discerned through careful exegesis and illumined by the whole counsel of Scripture.
We denythat general equity reduces to natural law reasoning alone, as though Scripture adds nothing essential to what unaided reason might discover.
We affirmthat Scripture is necessary for rightly understanding and applying justice in civil affairs, providing what natural law obscured by sin cannot.
We denythat civil magistrates may govern justly while ignoring or setting aside the moral instruction of God's written Word.
F. Authority, Neutrality, and the Lordship of Christ
We affirmthat Scripture alone provides the ultimate presuppositions by which all knowledge and ethics are rightly understood.
We denythat any hermeneutic or philosophical system may stand logically prior to Scripture.
We affirmthat there are only two postures a creature may take toward God: submission to His law or rebellion against it.
We denythe existence of any neutral ground between the City of God and the City of Man.
We affirmthat Jesus Christ is Lord over all creation.
We denythat any domain exists over which He does not exercise rightful authority.
G. The Church and Civil Justice
We affirmthat the church, as the pillar and ground of the truth, is called to teach, clarify, and apply the moral principles of Scripture, including those bearing upon public justice.
We denythat the church possesses civil legislative authority or may wield the sword entrusted to the magistrate.
We affirmthat the church's interpretation and application of Scripture in matters of morality and justice belongs to its prophetic office, exercised under the authority of Christ alone.
We denythat civil authorities possess jurisdiction over the church's interpretation of Scripture or its proclamation of divine law.
We affirmthat the church must not remain silent when matters of public justice require a prophetic word, for silence in the face of injustice is itself a failure of love.
We denythat the church's calling to preach the whole counsel of God permits withdrawal from engagement with the moral questions facing civil society.
We affirmthat the church speaks the whole counsel of God to all of life (personal, familial, ecclesiastical, and civil), for Christ is Lord of every sphere, and His Word addresses every human endeavor and institution.
We denythat the church "meddles in politics" when she proclaims what God's Word says about justice, rulers, laws, and the duties of magistrates; such proclamation is not overreach but obedience to her prophetic calling.
We affirmthat the church's prophetic voice includes both law and gospel, both the thunderings of Sinai and the tender mercies of Calvary, and that the gospel is her greater gift, for she would rather see sinners saved than merely condemned, and souls won for eternity than merely reformed for time.
We denythat faithful political witness requires the church to mute her gospel proclamation, for the same Word that commands magistrates to kiss the Son also pleads with rebels to be reconciled to God.
We affirmthat the church must jealously guard against the temptation to trade her birthright for a mess of political pottage, becoming so consumed with earthly victories that she forgets her citizens are enrolled in heaven, so enamored with temporal power that she neglects eternal souls, so busy reforming culture that she ceases calling sinners to repentance.
We denythat the danger lies in the church speaking to political matters (she must, and woe to her if she does not), but rather in forgetting that her political speech flows from her greater mission: to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to observe all that Christ commanded (all of it, including what He commands of rulers and nations).
We affirmthat when the church keeps her eyes fixed on eternity, her voice to earthly powers grows stronger, not weaker, for she fears no tyrant who can only kill the body, flatters no party that promises worldly influence, and speaks with the freedom of those whose treasure is laid up where moth and rust do not corrupt.
We denythat seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness diminishes the church's cultural impact; rather, it is precisely this eternal orientation that has, throughout history, most powerfully transformed civilizations, not by grasping for power, but by faithful witness unto death.
H. Response to Unjust Law
We affirmthat Christians are bound by Scripture to submit to governing authorities as ministers of God for good, rendering to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's.
We denythat this submission is absolute or unlimited, for we must obey God rather than men when human commands contradict divine law.
We affirmthat Christians may and should resist unjust laws through lawful and peaceable means: petition, protest, interposition by lesser magistrates, and the faithful proclamation of God's Word.
We denythat revolutionary violence or armed insurrection against lawful authority is ordinarily sanctioned by Scripture as a means of redressing injustice.
We affirmthat passive acceptance of manifest injustice, when lawful means of resistance remain available, may constitute a failure to love one's neighbor and uphold righteousness.
We denythat quietism or withdrawal from civil engagement fulfills the Christian's calling to seek the welfare of the city and pursue justice for the oppressed.
We affirmthat the doctrine of the lesser magistrate, whereby subordinate authorities may lawfully interpose against tyrannical acts of superior authorities, has a legitimate place in Reformed resistance theory.
We denythat private individuals possess authority to take up arms against the civil power apart from the sanction and leadership of duly constituted lesser magistrates.