Liberating Planet Earth
by Gary DeMar by Gary DeMar
T& God of Liberation 35 versal standard. The dialectical tension between law and history that undermines every non-Biblicd social philosophy is overcome by God, who is the guarantor of His law and the socizd order that is governed by this law. He is the guurantor of the law’s permanent applicability because He is the deliverer, in time and on earth. The prophets of Israel repeatedly announced their detailed critiques of Israel and Judah by first recalling that the God in whose name they were coming before the nation was the same God who had delivered them from Egypt (Isaiah 43:3; Jeremiah 6; Hosea 13 :4). Having made this identification, they would go on to catalogue the sins of the nation— sins that were prohibited by Biblical law. Ezekiel wrote, citing Leviticus 18:5, Therefore I made them go out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness. And I gave them My statutes and showed them My judgments, “which if a man do, he shall live by them” (Ezekiel 20:10-11). The New American Standard Version translates this final clause, “if a man observes them, he will live.” In other words, the very foundation of life is the law of God, z~a man lives in terms of this law. The prophets then listed the sins of the nation, which were inevitably bringing death and destruction. Biblical Law Can men legitimately have confidence in the law of God in every area of life? Yes. Why is this confidence justified? Because the same God who delivered Israel from the Egyptians also established the laws of every area of life. But this means that the basis of these laws is not man, or random chance, or historical cycles, or the impersonal forces of history, but instead is the sustaining providence of God. The guarantor of the reliability of law is a personal Being who delivers His people from those who defy His law. Biblical law is liberation law for those who have been liberated from sin through God’s regenerating grace. Anti-Biblical law is therefore bondage law. Those who proclaim liberation theology but who refuse to be guided by the concrete, explicit revelation of
36 Liberating Planet Earth God concerning economic law are wolves in sheep’s clothing. If they are proclaiming some variant of Marxism, socialism, interventionism, or other State-dei&ing economics, then they are the equivalent of the Egyptians. If they are proclaiming radical anarchism, then they are laying the foundations for an ethical and political backlash which will aid those who are seeking to expand the powers of the State. Men will not live under anarchy; libertinism (sexual and otherwise), which is necessarily a consequence of abolishing all civil laws (anarchism), creates the backlash. (Historically, the anarchists have allied themselves with Marxist revolutionaries at the beginning of a revolution, but have invariably been destroyed after their former allies capture control of the coercive apparatus of the State. Marx and anarchist Michael Bakunin initially cooperated in the founding of the First International [International Workingmen’s Association], the original international Communist revolutionary organization, but the two later split, and Marx and Engels destroyed the organization in the late 1870’s – by transferring its headquarters to New York City– rather than allow it to fall into the hands of Bakunin’s followers. In the case of the Russian Revolution, the anarchists were among the first dissidents to be arrested by the Cheka, Lenin’s secret police.) The Bible sets forth a true liberation theology, and it undergirds a true liberation society. The specifics of this social and political system are found in God’s law. What is commonly called “liberation theology” in the latter decades of the twentieth century is very often warmed-over Marxism, or some sort of socialist economics. Appeals are made by self-professed liberation theologians to the historic precedent of the exodus, but few if any references are made to the many Old Testament case-law applications of the Ten Commandments. In fact, liberation theologians deny the continuing validity of Old Testament laws that deal with economic relationships; only those laws that seem to expand the economic power of the State — and there are very few of these in the Bible — are cited by liberation theologians. This “pick and choose” aspect of modern liberation theology — a choice governed by the standards of socialism and revolution rather than by the standards of orthodox
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T& God of Liberation 35<br />
versal standard. The dialectical tension between law and history<br />
that undermines every non-Biblicd social philosophy is overcome<br />
by God, who is the guarantor of His law and the socizd order that<br />
is governed by this law. He is the guurantor of the law’s permanent<br />
applicability because He is the deliverer, in time and on earth.<br />
The prophets of Israel repeatedly announced their detailed<br />
critiques of Israel and Judah by first recalling that the God in<br />
whose name they were coming before the nation was the same<br />
God who had delivered them from Egypt (Isaiah 43:3; Jeremiah<br />
6; Hosea 13 :4). Having made this identification, they would go on<br />
to catalogue the sins of the nation— sins that were prohibited by<br />
Biblical law. Ezekiel wrote, citing Leviticus 18:5,<br />
Therefore I made them go out of the land of Egypt and brought<br />
them into the wilderness. And I gave them My statutes and<br />
showed them My judgments, “which if a man do, he shall live by<br />
them” (Ezekiel 20:10-11).<br />
The New American Standard Version translates this final<br />
clause, “if a man observes them, he will live.” In other words, the<br />
very foundation of life is the law of God, z~a man lives in terms of<br />
this law. The prophets then listed the sins of the nation, which<br />
were inevitably bringing death and destruction.<br />
Biblical Law<br />
Can men legitimately have confidence in the law of God in<br />
every area of life? Yes. Why is this confidence justified? Because<br />
the same God who delivered Israel from the Egyptians also established<br />
the laws of every area of life. But this means that the basis<br />
of these laws is not man, or random chance, or historical cycles,<br />
or the impersonal forces of history, but instead is the sustaining<br />
providence of God. The guarantor of the reliability of law is a personal<br />
Being who delivers His people from those who defy His law.<br />
Biblical law is liberation law for those who have been liberated<br />
from sin through God’s regenerating grace. Anti-Biblical law is<br />
therefore bondage law. Those who proclaim liberation theology<br />
but who refuse to be guided by the concrete, explicit revelation of
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