Informed, accessible textbook on law collections in the Pentateuch In this book William Morrow surveys four major law collections in Exodus–Deuteronomy and shows how they each enabled the people of Israel to create and sustain a community of faith. Treating biblical law as dynamic systems of thought facilitating ancient Israel's efforts at self-definition, Morrow describes four different social contexts that gave rise to biblical law: (1) Israel at the holy mountain (the Ten Commandments); (2) Israel in the village assembly (Exodus 20:22–23:19); (3) Israel in the courts of the Lord (priestly and holiness rules in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers); and (4) Israel in the city (Deuteronomy). Including forthright discussion of such controversial subjects as slavery, revenge, gender inequality, religious intolerance, and contradictions between bodies of biblical law, Morrow's study will help students and other serious readers make sense out of texts in the Pentateuch that are often seen as obscure.
The Bible is full of law. Yet too often, Christians either pick and choose verses out of context to bolster existing positions, or assume that any moral judgment the Bible expresses should become the law of the land. Law and the Bible asks: What inspired light does the Bible shed on Christians’ participation in contemporary legal systems? It concludes that more often than not the Bible overturns our faulty assumptions and skewed commitments rather than bolsters them. In the process, God gives us greater insight into what all of life, including law, should be. Each chapter is cowritten by a legal professional and a theologian, and focuses on a key aspect of the biblical witness concerning civil or positive law--that is, law that human societies create to order their communities, implementing and enforcing it through civil government. A foundational text for legal professionals, law and prelaw students, and all who want to think in a faithfully Christian way about law and their relationship to it.
The Old Testament law is foundational for our understanding of the Bible, but for many it remains some of the Old Testament's most foreign and exotic material. This book by a leading evangelical expert in biblical law helps readers understand Old Testament law, how it functioned in the Old Testament, and how it is (and is not) instructive for contemporary Christians. The author explicates the often confusing legal system of ancient Israel, differentiates between time-bound cultural aspects of Israelite law and universally applicable aspects of the divine value system, and shows the ethical relevance of Old Testament law for Christians today.
Without Obedience to God's Law, Our Faith is a Dead One. Is God's law opposed to love, grace, and faith? The Apostle Paul makes clear in Roman 13:8-10 that love is the fulfilling of the law because love puts law into action by respecting God's requirements concerning life, property, our neighbor, our enemy, and ourselves. If we commit adultery, we do not love our spouse. If we are idolaters, we do not love God. Love is more than a feeling; it is a way of life lived either in faith and obedience to God and His law, or in unbelief and disobedience. Love is the law of God put into action by a person of faith. Therefore, it is the grace of God that He has given us His commandments. In this powerful introduction to Biblical law, R. J. Rushdoony reveals that to be born again means that where you were once governed by your own word and spirit, you are now totally governed by God's Word and Spirit. This is because every word of God is a binding word. Our money, our calling, our family, our sexuality, our political life, our economics, our sciences, our art, and all things else must be subject to God's Word and requirements. The Scripture says that "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23), and that "sin is the trangression of the law" (1 John 3:4). Therefore, to be lawless - without law - is leading our society to death. Might this explain the disasters and collapses of our time? Can you see how important such a study of God's law would be? If so, then here is your introduction.
Biblical Law: Being a Text of the Statutes, Ordinances, and Judgments Established in the Holy Bible with Many Allusions to Secular Laws: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Documented to the Scriptures, Judicial Decisions, and Legal Literature Clark offers a systematic presentation of the commandments, precedents and customs found in the King James Version of the Bible. Following the organization of a legal text, the work is divided into sections on General Principles, Political Law, Civil Law, Economics and Welfare, General Laws, Penal Law, Crimes and Punishment, and Procedure and Administration of Law. " 'A PANDECT of Profitable Laws, against Rebellious Spirits!' Thus the Scriptures are described in the preface to the King James Version. Indeed, the Holy Bible is not only a repository of early laws; it is the code at once most ancient and best known by those who have been observers of the Christian Creed; and to it our later laws and governmental processes are, in essential and enduring parts, immediately indebted. (. . .) [T]he author, in order that Biblical law may be of easy access-has extracted the many commandments, precedents and customs which are to be found throughout the sacred writings and has sought to present them logically and systematically, in the style of a modern law book." -- Preface, v
To attempt to study Scripture without studying its law is to deny it. To attempt to understand Western civilization apart from the impact of Biblical law within it and upon it is to seek a fictitious history and to reject twenty centuries and their progress. The Institutes of Biblical Law has as its purpose a reversal of the present trend. it is called "Institutes" in the older meaning of the that word, i.e., fundamental principles, here of law, because it is intended as a beginning, as an instituting consideration of that law which must govern society, and which shall govern society under God. To understand Biblical law, it is necessary to understand also certain basic characteristics of that law. In it, certain broad premises or principles are declared. These are declarations of basic law. The Ten Commandments give us such declarations. A second characteristics of Biblical law, is that the major portion of the law is case law, i.e., the illustration of the basic principle in terms of specific cases. These specific cases are often illustrations of the extent of the application of the law; that is, by citing a minimal type of case, the necessary jurisdictions of the law are revealed. The law, then, asserts principles and cites cases to develop the implications of those principles, with is purpose and direction the restitution of God's order.
What impact has Christianity had on the law from its beginnings to the present day? This introduction explores the main legal teachings of Western Christianity, set out in the texts and traditions of scripture and theology, philosophy and jurisprudence. It takes up the weightier matters of the law that Christianity has profoundly shaped - justice and mercy, rule and equity, discipline and love - as well as more technical topics of canon law, natural law, and state law. Some of these legal creations were wholly original to Christianity. Others were converted from Jewish and classical traditions. Still others were reformed by Renaissance humanists and Enlightenment philosophers. But whether original or reformed, these Christian teachings on law, politics and society have made and can continue to make fundamental contributions to modern law in the West and beyond.
An introductory text explaining the nature, relevancy, coherency, and structure of the moral law as revealed throughout the Bible, with discussion of the Ten Commandments as a moral rubric and a subsequent application of each commandment to Christian living.
This book is a doctrinal manifesto. Its aim and purpose is to produce what many modern writers are fond of referring to as a paradigm shift. The goal is to lay the foundation for the establishment of a truly biblical social order, especially within the community of Bible-believing, Christ-honoring families. The subject matter is patriarchy and the biblical exposition contained herein is devoted to establishing the proposition that it is patriarchy which is and was mandated by God ever since the original creation of man and woman. A complete Scripture and Topical Index is included.