Theonomy began as a controversial movement in late-twentieth-century American Reformed theology and, in recent years, has reappeared within some parts of this community.
Between the 1970s and 1990s, theonomists such as R. J. Rushdoony (1916–2001), Gary North (1942–2022), and Greg L. Bahnsen (1948–1995) were involved in debates over the Old Testament’s relationship to the New, the continuance of the Mosaic civil laws, postmillennial eschatology, and presuppositional apologetics.[1] After the deaths of Rushdoony and Bahnsen, the movement largely cooled. However, with the help of Covid lockdowns, a new strain has regained some standing. Figures in this renewal include Joseph Boot, James White, and Douglas Wilson.[2]
While the earlier debates over theonomy were largely relegated to the American Presbyterian world, this brand is finding traction among Baptists, forcing them to face the incongruity between their theology and theonomic distinctives. Theonomy stresses the continuity of Mosaic moral and civil laws with the New Covenant. Though they differ as to particulars, Baptists typically see discontinuity between the covenants and stress the newness of the New.[3]
Without getting into a discussion of whether the relationship between Baptists and theonomy is tenuous, this essay considers the thought of an important eighteenth-century Baptist, John Gill (1697–1771). It
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