A Special Election Edition of "Who Said That?"

"The long-term goal of Christians in politics should be to gain exclusive control over the franchise.  Those who refuse to submit publicly to the eternal sanctions of God by submitting to His Church's public marks of the covenant–baptism and holy communion–must be denied citizenship, just as they were in ancient Israel."

OK fellow voters . . .  Who said that?  Leave your guess in the comments section below.  No google searches or cheating.

Update on Saturday, October 25, 2008 at 09:15AM by Kim Riddlebarger

This is a quote from Gary North's book Political Polytheism (1989).  This massive two-kingdom confusion is just plain creepy. 

Comments

[Mark Denning]

Dr. Riddlebarger,

I may be missing it but ever-time you do this I'm always left wondering what the correct answer is. I usually end up having to google it to find out who it was. Have you considered a follow-up posting the next day to tell us who it was. Sorry if my concern seems so dense. I'm just unable to figure out who it is without using google when you don't (that I know of) tell us later. Is that the point?

["lee n. field"]

Kim posts the answer appended to the original when a new "who said that" goes up.

[Kim Riddlebarger]

Mark:

I post the answer for the last "Who Said That?" each time I add a new one. If you click on the "Who Said That?" link on the bottom of the post, you'll get all the past posts with the answers.

[Patrick]

That is definitely a theonomist though I have not gotten well acquainted with who's who in theonomy circles; thank God. He must also be a postmillennialist as such a vision for the world fits that eschatological notion. Many have said Rushdoony and Bahnsen et al. I'll second that.

[Lane]

I will stick with the Rushdoony train of thought but I will say it's Mark Rushdoony, son of Rousas.

[walt]

North, Bahnsen, or Rushdoony

[M Cotten]

Someone mentioned "franchise" as a sign this is a contemporary quote. I suggest otherwise. It iis not talking about a Krispy Kreme outlet, but the right to vote, the "franchise." This is echoed in the reference to citizenship. Think I'll go out on a limb and suggest Calvin.

[M Cotten]

'twern't it.

[Mike]

RObert Schullers son

[Chris Sherman]

I'll go with Gary North on this one too. I was thinking possibly Schaeffer, but I don't think he went that far.

[Tom Albrecht]

Gary North. And the rest of the quote goes like this, "The way to achieve this political goal is through successful mass evangelism followed by constitutional revision."

[Chris Sherman]

Or maybe Constantine

[John Yeazel]

The theonomists outright rejected two-kingdom theology- they knew better and most were perfectly aware of it. I remember reading some of their literature back in the 80's and they would criticize Luther's and Calvin's ideas about politics all the time. A lot of right wing evangelicals were drawing from them at the time and it could be argued that they caused a lot of the confusion that is in the Church right now about the political realm.

[John Yeazel]

Most of the theonomists were top rate scholars- does anybody know what made them veer off from the confessional standards? I know Rushdoony was heavily influenced by Van Til- what made them go their Reconstructionists way?

[John Yeazel]

One more post- they were not pleasant people. They probably lasted for as long as they did because many were afraid to confront them. Does anybody know the history of that too? What finally caused some of the leading Reformed theologians to challenge them? Some of you probably were integral in finally saying enough is enough. Their soteriology also went against the confessional standards. They definitely were a scary group of people- I remember hearing Rushdoony once admiring the Ayatolla Khomeni and saying positive things about Kadafi (that is probably spelled wrong)- unbelievable.

[Mike]

Iam still going with Robert Schuller Jr. I can almost see Dad Schuller going into apoplexy as his plastered smile cracks open into horror.

[Timinator]

Gary North

[steve]

Yeazel said (among many other things) "One more post- they were not pleasant people"

Thanks for the ad hominem. I know family members of Rushdoony. Many people knew "Rush" as a sweet old guy - though they may have disagreed with his reconstructionism.

[Mike Ratliff]

I am often accused of being a 'Fundamentalist' by the emergent boys, and there are some issues where there may be overlap... However, this sort of stuff just incites those those who confuse God's Kingdom with the US. I really don't know who said this, but we need to be very careful not to 'partner' with those with this view. Come soon Lord Jesus!