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.

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.

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.

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?”

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.