What is dominion theology / theonomy / Christian reconstructionism?

One of the basic premises of what is called Reconstructionism or Dominion Theology is that the present day church is “The Israel of God”. What does that mean? To put this doctrine in simple terms it means that Israel has been permanently set aside, since the Old Testament curses have been applied to the Jews, and the blessings applied to the church.

More recently reconstructionists (also known as dominion theologians or theonomists), who are postmillennial, have joined the fray. One calls dispensationalism "unbelief and heresy"[9] whereas another labels premillennialism "an unorthodox teaching, generally espoused by heretical sects on the fringes of the Christian Church."[10]

The Dominion school of thinking is linked with the so-called preterite interpretation of the books of Hebrews and Revelation, and the Olivet Discourse. Although there are variations in their positions, the preterites teach that the prophecies have been fulfilled in the destruction of the temple and that the millennium started in the year 70 AD! Of course, we have to bear with our brothers and sisters in the faith, but it is important to see the consequences of these and similar erroneous teachings, especially when these views are not privately held, but are imposed on everyone.

Firstly, the dominion theologians say that there is a fundamental difference between the Kingdom our Lord preached and the one the apostles preached (in view of the destruction of the temple). In reality, the Kingdom preached by the Lord and the apostles is the same, though it adopted a different character when the Lord was rejected by the nation (Matt. 11-13) and during His absence (Luke 19:11-27). It will be seen in glory again in a different character, but it is the same Kingdom.

Some dispensationalists have been too pessimistic and have neglected their responsibility, but I would feel ashamed to have my Jewish friends read the articles and books of the reconstructionists! They often refer to the Old Testament church, and this is one of the errors typical of this school of thinking.

But in the maintenance of this, the claim of God was first, and thus the commandments as to idolatry follow this immediately. There was to be no toleration in such cases at all, but sharp excision by the sword of justice, the government being exercised by God openly among them, and the worship of other gods manifest rebellion. Church and state were here really one, and ecclesiastical penalties also civil ones. This is, of course, no justification of such a course in entirely different conditions under another dispensation. The kingdom of God is now "not of this world;" Christ's people reign not, but are patient sufferers; their weapons spiritual, and not carnal; and grace to be manifested by them while God in His grace forbears toward men.

And this is all the more striking from the contrast which it presents with the Old Testament teaching. There God speaks to a people, who, instead of being outside the world, are expressly promised the most favoured position, and the most abundant blessing in the world. For their guidance the fullest political and legal directions are provided. What treatment to give to captured cities, what exemptions to make from military service, what number of witnesses to require in criminal trials, what courts to establish for disputed questions, what punishments to inflict for particular offences, these and other kindred matters are laid down with a precision suited to the worldly character of the subject with which they deal. As might be expected, where the righteous regulation of society was the object, strict assertion of right is the pervading principle; "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," fairly summarises its spirit. Indeed, such must be the spirit of any code for the equitable government of man on the earth.

In the Old Testament, where the dispensation was different, there were instructions for the office of a king, but in the New Testament, whilst there are instructions how the Christian is to obey, there is not a single line as to how he is to rule. The Christian is to “honour the king,” but there are no instructions how to behave as a king. We are told “to obey magistrates,” but there are no instructions how to fulfil the office of a magistrate. We have the exhortation, “Let every soul be subject to the higher powers” (Rom. 13:1), and that at a time when the Roman Emperor was that monster of iniquity, Nero. Yet there is not one line of instruction to the Christians as to ruling. The silence of Scripture is as powerful as its speech. The Christian is not exhorted to remedy abuses in this world. “Let the dead bury their dead” (Luke 9:60), was the sharp comment of the Lord to one, who declared that he would be a disciple, but who wished to put the burying of his father before discipleship. The Christian has to do with the Kingdom of God. But his reigning time has not come yet. Till Christ gets His rightful place, there is no place for us as rulers of this world, but on the contrary we are exhorted as “strangers and pilgrims” (1 Peter 2:11).

The children of Israel were specially chosen to be God’s people, and their government was theocratic, in other words they were governed by the immediate direction of God. This is the ideal government. The last verse of the Book of Judges says, “In those days there was no king in Israel every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Jud. 21:25). The government should have been theocratic, but when democracy ran wild, it is aptly described by the words, “Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”

Now we are familiar with the fact that where atonement is denied the "fatherhood of God" may be yet insisted on, and indeed widened in its application to all, upon the natural basis of creation, the fall and its consequences being denied. Grace, faith, and a peculiar relationship of these to one another are thus necessarily set aside also: and this is evidently the condition of the best human governments, which, as governments of the world, cannot act upon Christian rules or principles, which are for Christians only. The omission in the second list is therefore the expression of a simple fact by which all governments today, however much Christian in profession, are distinguished from Christ's coming one. Look at the judgment of sheep and goats (Matt. 25), the judgment of the living when that kingdom is set up on earth, — and note the difference. Christians may be kings, judges, governors, they cannot any the more, as such, act in character as Christians; nor can they find in the New Testament a single word addressed to such. "My kingdom is not of this world" is decisive for the followers of Him who spake after this manner.

This has never yet been recalled from man, nor have the principles of its exercise been altered by the word of God. On the contrary, in times subsequent to Genesis 9, with the increase of evil in the world, its powers have been widened and increased, and they are fully recognised in the New Testament as having divinely given claims over the obedience and loyalty of Christians. And there is in this no question of there being what are called "christian magistrates." Paul, in Acts 23:5, on the contrary, standing as a Christian before a ruler who was violently opposed to Christ, refers to the word in the Old Testament scripture as binding upon him with reference to any such magistrate. And in Romans 13:1–8 Christians have the clearest light shining for them upon both their relation to the "higher powers," as those who "bear the sword," and the relation of these governors to God; while 1 Timothy 2:1–4 and 1 Peter 2:11–17 amplify the exhortations to quiet and submissive conduct on our part under them in all that concerns the administration of earthly affairs — the true christian character of pilgrims and strangers here being maintained through all that is done. Men have forgotten all this who have tried to use the truths of Christianity to displace divinely enunciated principles of the government of the world; turning the teaching of scripture which was intended for the guidance of the church, into maxims for the use of the world. This has arisen from confounding together the church and the world, and from thoroughly mistaking the place and the object of Christianity. It was not intended to interfere with the world, as such, at all, but was designed to take out of it a people for the Lord's name. A worldly Christianity has thus neither the truth as to God's government of the world, nor that of the true grace of God in the midst of an evil world.