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