Recently, while watching the news, I witnessed a man eloquently describing the type of values that we need to restore in America if we are going to get out of our social and economic troubles.
This man spoke passionately and convincingly until he was charged with trying to establish a theocracy in America.
As soon as this charge was leveled against him, he stumbled with his words and didn't know how to respond.
I realized at that moment, that we need to clarify a vision for restoring values in America which will naturally lead to liberty and justice.
Those values are the values which are expressed in biblical law, which were the foundation of civil law in early America.
Originally, we used the term Republican to express the fact that our social and moral values were founded on the authority of Scripture rather than upon Democratic consensus.
One of the differences between a republic and a democracy is the fact that a republic is founded upon values which are external to the opinions of men, and in a democracy whatever the majority of the people believe is right is the foundation of values.
Our founding fathers rightfully understood that if values are determined by popular opinion, our country would degenerate into social and moral chaos.
The problem that we are facing today is that the term republican and democrat refer to political parties rather than political structures.
Therefore we need a new term to describe the values upon which America was founded.
A good term that we can use in place of "republican" is "theonomy".
The word "theonomy" not only expresses republican principles, but it clarifies the particular values upon which America was founded.
The word "theonomy" was coined in the 1960s by John Rushdoony.
In theological circles this word is relatively new.
There is not yet a clear consensus of what it means.
Modern writers often mistake this word as a synonym for theocracy.
Yet, this word has been used so little, that it is an ideal word to express the values of our founding fathers.
The word comes from two Greek words, "Theos" which means "God", and "nomos" which means law.
In its final form it refers to the rule of God's law, which was the original vision of America's founding fathers.
We need to make it clear that when we speak of the rule of God's law, we are not referring to an establishment of religion.
Biblically and socially it is immoral to seek to force religious faith upon people.
This is not the intent of theonomy.
The goal of theonomy is to build society upon the wisdom and reality which is revealed in Scripture, and has proven itself throughout history to be a great blessing to every society which structured itself upon it.
There are so many people today that are afraid of religion being crammed down their throats that they have often tried to rid society of biblical values.
For example, there are people who believe that enforcing the moral values of the 10 Commandments constitutes an establishment of religion.
The problem with this is obvious.
If we forsake the moral values of biblical law such as "thou shall not steal", "thou shall not murder", or "thou shall not bear false testimony" simply because of their religious origins, our society will not be better off.
On the contrary, the more we seek to understand and implement biblical social and moral principles in society, the more our society will prosper and flourish.
As a matter of fact, it was theonomic values such as teaching the consent of the governed, or taxation without representation is oppression, that was the root of so many of the values we hold dear today.
Those values were instrumental in the American Revolution, and were the result of people applying biblical values to the social problems of their day.
If we were to continue the same legacy in our generation, we might apply biblical values in a manner which declares that any law which is enacted by our government that contains any earmarks whatsoever is a criminal act of treason against the American people.
Such values, if practiced, would significantly and positively impact American society.
If we are going to see a clear vision set to restore honor to America, into uphold liberty and justice for all, we need a way to clearly describe our mission.
Because the term "republican values" no longer refers to the founding principles of our nation, but rather a political party, I suggest that we adopt the term "Theonomy" in its place.
The goal is not to enforce religious faith, but to implement social and moral structures which will be a blessing to all people; values which encourage human dignity, freedom, liberty, happiness and prosperity.
Such values will keep the dream of our founding fathers alive in our generation.