God, Law & Liberty Podcast

C.S. Lewis once wrote that it may seem he is “trying to answer questions you never asked." Some may think that about my recent discourses on God's covenant secret and in relation to law. But Lewis also said those answers often "do not make sense until a man has reached those places.” Today, I hope those discourses will make sense. That "secret" explains what kind of thinking about or engagement in law and politics is salutary and what is in vain.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today David talks about what he learned six months ago that is fundamental to the "secret" behind a Christian view of law. It helped him see why his worldview was more informed by Darwin and Nietzsche than Christ, and it further reformed his approach to legal and public policy advocacy.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Did you know that a Christian view of law hinges on a secret that God only makes known to those who fear him? Psalm 25:14 says, “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.” Today, David explains how a Christian cosmology of law is embedded in that verse. And he explains how coming to know that secret after decades in evangelical churches awakened him from the Nietzschean cosmology that had informed his view of politics and law for decades.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Apostle Paul writes that “the law is spiritual,” but what does that mean? Today, David answers that question. And the answer will explain why he said last week that the answer to “What is a Christian view of law?” depends on a person’s metaphysics. The answer Scripture provides is the only antidote to the metaphysical nihilism that infects so many Christians engaged in law and public policy advocacy, from professionals to preachers.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

According to Romans 7:14, the answer depends on one’s metaphysic. Today David explains why some Christians would find such an answer too philosophical and speculative sounding to be Christian, even perhaps even unbiblical. But Herman Bavinck and Abraham Kuyper told us more than 100 years ago this would happen. Kuyper even saw the Calvinism he loved grinding to a metaphysical halt.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today’s episode is an “extra” for this week in anticipation of Friday’s podcast on “A Christian View of Law.” It is a sermon David preached on Psalm 25:14 in November 2023 to re-ignite the imagination of those who might have lost the wonder of the “secret” God reveals to “those who fear him.”Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What is a “Christian” view of law? David says the answer depends entirely on what the word “Christian” means. So, in this episode, he explains why he thinks the word has lost it original meaning,; pans an emerging alternative, “Jesus follower;” and sets the stage for next week’s topic: Are “Christians” using the law lawfully?Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, David looks at what esteemed jurist Joseph Story said about the First Amendment’s “Free Speech Clause”—debated this week in the U.S. Supreme Court—and a type of harm it did not protect. Today, even that harm makes no sense, and so it is allowed to proliferate. David explains what is missing in even doctrinally sound Christian thinking that prevents the scourge of pornography from being addressed properly in our law.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today’s episode is David’s report on a “autopsy” performed by a few of the remaining sons of Issachar in America on the “Death of Evangelicalism.” Its death was pronounced by a Final Judgment, aptly named, issued by the United States Supreme Court in 2015. If you want to appreciate why evangelicalism seems so fruitlessness in culture and law, you will want to listen to the report. Thankfully, he notes, the dead are raised to life again according to the Gospel.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

History shows that the purpose of the First Amendment's religion clauses was to continue the reformation between religious liberty and religious toleration that ended in England with the restoration of the monarchy and the Church of England's primacy. Recent arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court on religious liberty show that Christians in America have forgotten that purpose and providentially given mission. That failure has put Christians under the thumb of the godless. It is time that Church re-vive this stillborn reformation to reconcile religious liberty with righteous and just civil laws.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week the U.S. Supreme Court considered the application of the Free Exercise Clause to a public school "story time" curriculum that some Christians parents objected to. Perhaps Christians should consider why they want a clause expressly directed to Congress applied to the states.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Easter is the perfect time for Christians to reflect on the providence of God in constituting our nation in such a way that a great gospel doctrine was placed in the Constitution's Free Exercise Clause. In the minds of George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson it resolved a gospel debate that can be raced back to 16th century English theologian, William PerkinsSupport the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The full text of John Adams’s letter saying “our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people” has been forgotten. In the forgotten portion, he wrote “this Country will be the most miserable Habitation in the world” if certain specific things happened. What were they? Did they happen? If so, what should we do? In the mid-1800s, van Prinsterer gave an answer that would keep us from “whitewashing sepulchers.” Some will want to discuss this further at the conference announced in today’s podcast.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today David examines Tennessee’s attorney general's defense before the U.S. Supreme Court of the state’s law prohibiting medical treatments for a minor’s gender dysphoria. It’s important to understand because it’s the same argument Christian legal and policy advocates are using around the country. Are the arguments based on a nihilistic or biblical cosmology? Listen to find out.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today David takes quotes from the arguments made last week by the U.S. Department of Justice to the United States Supreme Court explaining why it thinks the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause is violated by Tennessee's law prohibiting the use of medicine to treat a minor's gender dysphoria. His analysis of them will show why Christians must take the prevailing nihilistic cosmology and its application to law seriously.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, David looks at the Incarnation through the lens of excerpts from John Owen's Christologia and Isaiah 61 to show its application to law and its relation to how Tennessee's law prohibiting medical interventions to “treat” a minor's gender dysphoria is being defended before the United States Supreme Court.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Christians lose the metaphysic and cosmology of Colossians 1:15-20, we fall prey to the “empty traditions and philosophies of men.” David uses John Owen's exposition of Hebrews 11:1, legislative testimony from the most prominent pro-life lawyer in America, and what the founder of a Christian law school said he teaches his students to show how a wrong metaphysic and cosmology turns making the argument of law into counting votes on the U.S. Supreme Court.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two weeks ago, David argued there were Fifth Commandment problems with the legal arguments submitted by Christians to the U.S. Supreme Court in defense of Tennessee's law prohibiting the use of medicine to address a minor's gender dysphoria. Today David looks at the briefs submitted on behalf of four Christian organizations to explain why he thinks there are problems with the first three commandments, too.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Having explored the ways in which the arguments of a leading Christian legal advocate conform to the way the godless think about the world we live in, David raises two objections that might be made against his analysis. He answers them with the help of William Blackstone and a conversation between his friends at Choc Knox Unplugged. Getting a free copy of David's short monograph, Toward Christian Nihilism-A Short Study in Contrasting Policy Approaches, will make clearer what's going on.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is it a “legal strategy” or a Fifth Commandment problem when Christian legal advocates eschew common law and its application to current legal issues involving human sexuality? David uses an amicus brief recently filed by a leading Christian legal advocacy organization with the U.S. Supreme Court and William Blackstone to answer that question and shows how its rights-based legal argument conforms to the way the ungodly think about rights.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A question about natural law from a lawyer-lobbyist about Christians embracing natural law provides a foundation for today's look at the arguments made by Christian legal advocates to SCOTUS in defense of Tennessee's law prohibiting medical interventions to treat a minor's gender dysphoria. David explains how their arguments unwittingly embrace a subjective-oriented, relativistic understanding of law, not a Christian one.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week friend of the court briefs were filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on a case out of Tennessee that is of civilization defining importance—whether bodies are essential to human meaning. David briefly explains the brief he submitted and compares it to one filed by the scholarly Ethics and Public Policy Council with its Judeo-Christian ethic. He explains why the latter's brief seems to call for a return to good old bad days of the Enlightenment that undermined biblical Christianity and ushered in nihilism.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today David begins to look at a third group he now sees involved in politics, those he calls neo-Theonomists. The prophet Isaiah as well as the person who prepared the soil for Abraham Kuyper's political engagement, Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer, speak wisely to those who with a Benthamite view of the Bible run to the Capitol to press for enactment of certain laws of God.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today David offers a Biblical touchstone for improving on the church-state problems that contributed to our law no longer having a Christian foundation. Demonstrative of those problems are two historical situations that may explain why the Danbury Baptists may have sided with the Enlightenment-influenced, Gospel-averse Thomas Jefferson for President. There is “blame” enough for every stripe of Protestant to share in and now it's time to move forward.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Who, in David's terminology, are the neo-Baptists that he finds involved in politics and law? Is their engagement “better” than that of neo-Covenanters? Today, David discusses the distinction between Baptistic theology and that of the “old” Covenantors and how that theology worked itself in history. He explains how that led the Danbury Baptist Association to support Thomas Jefferson for President. Did the “old” Baptists help Jefferson lay the foundation for a “wall of separation” that the neo-Baptists of today decry?Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David takes today's episode to develop a historical context for next week's discussion of neo-Baptist engagement with law and politics. Without this context, the Gnostic nature of that form of engagement will be less clear. David uses the work of 18th-century Scottish theologian, Thomas Boston, and the Apostle Paul's first letter to Timothy to explain the role of law in non-Gnostic terms.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Are you part of the neo-Covenantal tradition or the neo-Baptist tradition when it comes to law and politics? Today, David defines these two groups based on 30 years of dealing with Christians in the legal and policy spheres. In this episode, though, he explains why the neo-Covenanters are Gnostics and would have Calvin and Kuyper rolling in their graves.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David begins his examination of what he considers the two predominate views among Christians on law and politics, those he calls the neo-Covenanters and neo-Baptists, with how he realized he read the Bible like the legal positivist, Jeremy Bentham, and why reading the Bible that way is gnostic, not Christian. Is being a heretic easier than ever before? The answer may surprise you.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Common law authority William Blackstone said that man “must in all points conform to the will of his nature,” and this will was called the “natural law.” Today, David explains how he overlooked the most fundamental law of human nature because he read the Bible like a disciple of legal positivist Jeremy Bentham. From his experience, David offers a proposition about the state of evangelicalism in America.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Evangelicals of all stripes want to live in a country that has righteous laws or, we might say, law in accord with God's law. And to that end the debate rages among those voting for Trump because they are evangelicals and those not voting for Harris because they are evangelical. The recent comments of David French and the formation of “Evangelicals for Harris” and the evangelical rejoinder to them quickly come to mind. Today, David launches a short series that talks about the evangel of righteousness that seems to have been lost in the din of politics.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week David shares four statements by Jonathan Burnside, Professor of Biblical Law at the University of Bristol (England) Law School, about how the Bible presents “Biblical law” that came flooding back to his mind when, last week, he read a conversation God said Jeremiah would have with those of God's people who did not like his prophecies. Would we, like them, say, “How have we forgotten your law?”Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At a recent gathering of political and legal advocates from around the nation, most of whom were Christians, these questions were asked: “What keeps you up at night?” and “What is most urgent to you?” David uses an excerpt from C.S. Lewis's The Weight of Glory, an excerpt from John Owen's Christologia, and Hebrews Chapter 4, to provide insight into what the questions and the way they were framed says about our understanding of the Gospel.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week's episode will spring from the relationship between Dionysius's table depicted at the Olympics and common Christian wisdom about political engagement. David will apply thoughts drawn from observations made by Abraham Kuyper, John Owen, Jeff Shafer, Jason Farley, and the prophet Jeremiah to offer what he thinks should be the first step in a truly Christian response to the Republican Party's Platform and future political engagement.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After the events of the last 10 days, some Christian policy organizations are circling back to how Christians should respond to the new Republican Party Platform. Today, David uses Isaiah and John Owen to probe whether observations made by one prominent national organization go deeply enough in explaining how 45 years of work were, in its words, “wiped out in hours.”Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Changes in the Republican Party's platform's planks regarding abortion and marriage riled Christian political advocates who actively sought a minority report with different language. But did they read the Preamble? Today, David explains why he thinks its provisions represent the best of humanistic hubris and explain why abortion and marriage were left to walk the proverbial plank.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In his discussion of the ruler's function, Peter tells persecuted Christians to “do good.” Is that limited to doing good deeds, or can his exhortation apply to how one does politics and drafts legislation? David says it includes the latter and gives real life examples from the last few years to demonstrate what the “good” is and isn't in relation to a Biblical anthropology.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As noted last week, the metaphysics of law and sin are first seen in the opening chapters of Genesis and more clearly revealed in Romans. But what are we to make of the exhortations by both Paul and Peter to overcome evil rulers by doing good? Are these exhortations the eternal word of God or mere artifacts of a different time in history? In other words, now we need organized political effort that give us the power to enact better laws.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Apostle Peter gives us description of rulers that helps us evaluate those who hold office in all three branches of our civil government. The result isn't pretty. But his recommendation for how to respond to “ignorant fools” in public office seems wrong and is at odds with what we think and do today. But if God's word is true and eternal, does that mean we're missing something? Is it in our understanding of how the Bible speaks of law and sin?Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Al Mohler said this week that there will be  “two rival understandings of reality facing off” in the November elections. Is that true?  David asks and answers several questions about the nature of law that probe the accuracy of Mohler's assessment. More importantly, is there evidence that evangelical Christianity doesn't even present a rival understanding of reality to that held by the Democratic and Republican parties.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The conviction of former President Donald Trump generated lots of comments about the rule of law. Some said it was the end of the rule of law and others said it was demonstrative of the rule of law. What if neither observation is correct? David uses the thoughts of Lord Henry deBracton, the father of the common law, to examine rule of law and in what sense, if any, it exists today.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David recounts a recent conversation with a member of Congress on pending legislation that demonstrates what happens when Christians are not discipled well in the faith and in the law respecting their office. No “Christian America” will come from such leaders. But it will come if Christians understand what Ezekiel 36 teaches about how God brings a once-Christian nation not just from captivity but to restoration and advancement.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Theonomy is predicated on the Triune God but it pertains to a certain cosmology. So, how are Christians to think of theonomy and its application in relation to a legal system the structure and content of which are now divorced from both its history and the cosmology that gave rise to it? David tackles that subject with a new two-part thesis for “applied theonomy.”Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christians who have been unengaged in politics are now beginning to engage. So, why would the host of one of David's favorite podcasts suggest many of them are “mucking up everything?” David's explanation of a key period in Medieval Christendom discussed in the podcast and tied to a key U.S. Supreme Court decision, along with David's comments on observations about law by Hale Institute director Jeff Shafer, provide an answer.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A recent interview of an evangelical pastor disappointed by his friend, Virginia Governor Youngkin, signing a same-sex “marriage” bill into law reveals how Christian discipleship falls short, not just with those wanting to hold office, but often with the pastors and policy organizations supporting them. David explains why what may sound and look good to many people in the pews too often turns out so disappointing.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The floundering of the pro-life movement since Roe v. Wade was reversed provides the context for David asking in today's episode, “What makes for a Christian community, state, or nation, and where in that process do righteous civil laws come into play?” In answer, David offers for consideration a thesis drawn from a re-examination of the Great Commission in Matthew 28.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, David talks about how discipling a nation (Matthew 28:19) might look different from what is being done today in law and public policy. He uses a statement made on the Tennessee House floor this week by an influential Christian Republican to show what he thinks is missing. He also offers part of a speech he recently gave to a group of Christian lawyers and policy leaders as a way forward.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

God promised “nations” would come from Abraham and Jesus told his disciples to disciple the nations. With that in mind, David uses scripture and some observations from Choc Knox and Jason Farley (Knox Unplugged) to explain how this kind of “nation building” is influencing the focus of his work in law and politics.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Many Christians, including preachers, politicians, and policy organizations, seem bent on “saving” America from further ruin by various means. Is that really the purpose for which the mystery of God was revealed in the person of Christ? Does the covenant with Abraham, illuminated by the new covenant in Christ, suggest a national purpose relative to law and civil government that Christians have not considered? And what kind of politicians and policy makers (and preachers) would we need, given our present ones seem to have failed us. Join David as he works through these questions.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Eric Metaxas's new book, Letter to the American Church, Biden's use of the image of God in proclaiming Transgender Awareness Day, and 29 years of direct legal and policy advocacy have brought home to me with increasing urgency observations made about Christianity and society by Abraham Kuyper in the 1890's. Is Christianity and the work and activism of most Christians in law, civil government, and public policy Christ-less? How does it matter? John Owen's Christologia provides a needed answer.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In a speech given in 1891 to open the First Christian Social Congress, Abraham Kuyper nailed the problem Europe was experiencing and that America is now experiencing. His precise definition of the problem and concise explanation of it will help us evaluate whether the “practical politics” practiced by evangelical legal and policy organizations is exposes the absence of something vital to Christianity and culture.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A Christian legal organization recently trumpeted a “victory for religious liberty,” but whether it was a victory depends on one's theology. Today David uses Colossians 2 and Robert Haldane's commentary on Romans 2:1 to show what many Christian legal and policy organizations think “victory” means and why it that is their sole objective, and what a different theology might have them doing.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.