Someone recently responded to our defense of God’s law with a common retort: “Libertarianism is gay and defeatist.” This strawman, equating God’s law with libertarianism, is as shallow as it is pervasive. When you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail. And when you are a statist, everything outside your paradigm looks like libertarianism. Thus, many critics see theonomy’s biblical freedom and assume it’s libertarian anarchy. Prominent voices like Joel Webbon, who similarly mislabels theonomy as libertarianism or liberalism, perpetuate this error. Theonomy grounds civil justice in God’s sufficient law, applied by godly judges and a convicted populace, rejecting both statism’s overreach and libertarianism’s moral void.
God’s law – revealed in Scripture – is the complete standard for civil governance and societal order. We need no additional civil laws; God’s statutes are enough. “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul” (Psalm 19:7). Unlike humanistic systems piling on regulations, theonomy demands godly judges to adjudicate biblically, supported by a people committed to justice (Deuteronomy 16:18-20). The theonomic position is not a retreat from order but a call to rule under God’s perfect law.
The notion that theonomy aligns with libertarianism stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of our principles. It’s a strawman argument, often wielded by those who, seeing our anti-statist stance, mistakenly assume we champion chaos or anarchy. This perspective overlooks a core distinction: libertarianism, with its emphasis on individual autonomy, is not primarily focused on justice. While there may be some overlap between theonomy and libertarianism, particularly concerning limited government and individual liberty, such overlaps exist between many distinct political and theological positions. This shared ground does not, however, imply alignment in foundational principles or ultimate goals.
The distinction between theonomy and libertarianism becomes stark when examining their core tenets on societal order and divine justice. The Libertarian Party platform emphasizes individual sovereignty, stating, “We hold that all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose.” This principle, often summarized by the Non-Aggression Principle (NAP), means actions like blasphemy or seduction to idolatry are not considered criminal unless they involve direct physical force or fraud against another individual’s person or property. In contrast, biblical law (theonomy) commands civil penalties for such offenses against God. For instance, Deuteronomy 13:6-10 explicitly details capital punishment for those who entice others to idolatry, even close family members, stating, “You must certainly put them to death. Your hand must be the first in putting them to death, and then the hands of all the people.” Similarly, Leviticus 24:16 declares, “Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him.” These divine mandates highlight a dimension entirely absent from libertarianism’s secular framework
Libertarianism, right or left, is worlds apart from theonomy. Right-libertarianism, per Murray Rothbard, prioritizes individual liberty, free markets, and the Non-Aggression Principle (NAP), which forbids coercion but ignores justice as defined biblically. Left-libertarianism, like Noam Chomsky’s anarcho-syndicalism, blends personal freedom with egalitarian aims, silent on biblical morality. Neither punishes sins like idolatry unless they violate NAP. Theonomy, however, commands a people to wield the sword (via just magistrates) against such acts. If my personal desires – say, to lead others to commit idolatry – clash with God’s law, Scripture prevails. Libertarianism exalts self-ownership; theonomy exalts justice.
Despite the clear distinctions between biblical law and modern libertarianism, the statist hammer-wielder frequently mislabels theonomy as anarchism or liberalism. Some fear our rejection of humanistic laws signals anarchistic chaos, ignoring our call for godly governance (Deuteronomy 6:4-6). However, liberalism’s moral relativism, with its fluid ethics, clearly clashes with theonomy’s absolute law (Exodus 21:1-23:33). Why the persistent error? Statists, gripping their hammer ever tighter, assume rejecting their system means rejecting order itself. They thus reduce theonomy to a caricature. Theonomy’s anti-statism isn’t withdrawal; it’s conviction, trusting God’s law to order society. Libertarianism offers no law, only license (thus libertarianism is only correct when it borrows from theonomy and posits no law where God has not posited one); theonomy offers God’s law, structuring liberty. The equation of theonomy with liberalism, as Webbon suggests, fares no better, ignoring our call for biblical penalties.
Ultimately, theonomy stands apart from all other systems. It rejects both the boundless reach of statism and the moral void of libertarianism. Our commitment is to God’s perfect law, not human constructs, as the sufficient and supreme standard for all civil justice and societal order.
