Criticisms of theonomous ethics

• Not everything in the Bible can be taken literally
• Jesus says 'if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away'


  • Even very conservative Christians would not actually do this
  • They understand the command to 'pluck out' is really a metaphor for seeing things in the wrong way and is a call for repentance and change
• Christians who view the Bible as the sole source of moral authority are still using their reason to decide which parts are meant to be taken literally, and which are not
• The Bible contains contradictions on moral commands

  The Old Testament teaches 'eye for and eye, tooth for tooth, life for life', but Jesus rejected this
• Most Christians would argue that Jesus's teachings are more important, given his divine nature, but coming to this decision involves a degree of reasoning
• Bibliolatry

  The false worship of the Bible
• The Bible is a supreme source of Christian moral truth, but it is not the truth itself and must be read critically as a source of inspiration
• Christians who follow theonomous ethics don't follow every rule literally
• This suggests Christians who follow this approach are being selective in which Biblical commands rules they choose to obey, that they are using their reason to decide which commands to follow, and this is a significant criticism of theonomous ethics
• Scholars who study the Bible argue that the different books in the Bible clearly show the culture and influence of the writer, challenging the propositional view of revelation
• A literalist interpretation of the Bible may appear to encourage intolerance
• A literalist interpretation is also challenged by scientific thinking, such as evolution and the Big Bang theory
• Autonomous ethics


  Morality is about using our reason to come to autonomous moral choices, not about blindly obeying rules
• Heteronomous ethics

  Reason allows us to access Natural Law and find our moral rules ourselves
• Theonomous ethics is too legalistic and concerned with rules rather than agape
• Propositional view of revelation


  God communicated to the Bible writers in statements, they simply wrote down what they were told without making any changes or adding their own interpretations
• Non-propositional view of revelation

  God communicated to the Bible writers, but not in statements. The Bible then is their attempt to put this message into words, reflecting the interpretation and culture of the writer
• According to the non-propositional view of revelation, Christians must try to interpret certain passages to discover the real meaning behind them