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General Equity or Penal Perpetuity? Abortion as a Test Case for Theonomic Reconstructionism

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General Equity or Penal Perpetuity? Abortion as a Test Case for Theonomic Reconstructionism J. Neil Daniels   Abstract Abortion functions as a decisive test case for Christian political theology because it forces explicit judgments about law, civil authority, and the location of judgment within redemptive history. This article argues that theonomic reconstructionism, while internally coherent and morally serious, mislocates judgment by pressing Mosaic judicial law and its penal sanctions into a covenantal context no longer sustained by the New Testament. Through exegetical analysis of Exodus 21:22–25 and Romans 13:1–7, coupled with historical examination of the magisterial Reformed tradition and Westminster Confession of Faith 19.4, the study contends that Scripture norms justice without supplying a transhistorical penal code for modern states. The moral gravity of abortion is fully affirmed, yet the absolutization of Mosai...
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Ink That Cannot Fade

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J. Neil Daniels  There’s a line tucked into Isaiah that has refused to leave me alone for years now, the kind of line that ambushes you when you’re tired or discouraged and lands harder than it did the last time. “Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands” (Isaiah 49:16). Not written in a ledger. Not pinned to a heavenly bulletin board. Etched. Cut in. The Hebrew verb there is חָקַק ( ḥāqaq ), here in the form חַקֹּתִיךְ —“I have engraved you.” It isn’t delicate. It carries the sense of cutting, carving, incising something permanent. The picture is not of God jotting down a reminder, but of Yahweh marking Himself. If you let that sit for a moment, it’ll undo you. In its immediate context, the words are spoken to Israel, and they’re spoken at a low point. Zion is complaining—boldly, even petulantly—that the Lord has forgotten her. “Yahweh has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.” That’s the accusation. God’s response is not a rebuke, at least not di...
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