Le Monarchomaque

Dernière mise-à-jour : 30 octobre 2020.

Je suggère au lecteur de consulter également cet autre billet du même thème sur Le Monarchomaque : La Confession de foi réformée baptiste de 1689 est théonomique.

Portrait de William Kiffin (1616-1701) par Reformation Art. Kiffin est le principal fondateur de la dénomination réformée baptiste. Le polémiste presbytérien Thomas Edwards (1599-1648) lui accola le sobriquet de « Métropolite de cette Fraternité ».

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Parlement puritain de Westminster sur le Grand Sceau d’Angleterre frappé en 1651 : « En la troisième année de liberté, restaurée par la bénédiction de Dieu »

English Abstract: Kuyperianism and Theonomy among the Early Reformed Baptists

This study argues and demonstrates that in the middle of the XVIIth century, the founders of Reformed Baptism were unanimously kuyperians and massively theonomists — rather than pietists and devotees of Radical Two Kingdom (R2K) theology. It also provides evidence that many prominent leaders and key figures of this Puritan denomination in the two following centuries were kuyperians and theonomists.

The author defines Kuyperianism as the affirmation that “the lordship of Christ [extends] over all temporal affairs” and that “Scripture governs all aspects of human life, including culture and government.” Kuyperianism is well summarized in Abraham Kuyper’s inaugural address at the dedication of the Free University of Amsterdam in 1880: “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’,” and in the first of his six Stone Lectures delivered at Old Princeton in 1898: “Calvinism [is] a life-system.”

After reviewing several definitions of Theonomy, the author retains, as qualifying criteria, the promotion (either express or tacit) of the establishment of the protestant religion (not the establishment of a state church) – measured by the refusal of political polytheism (religious pluralism) – and the promotion of the reformation of positive law according to the Bible.

The author defines Pietism as a religious movement that emphasizes “Christian” piety in a Hellenic & Pagan dualistic sense, which opposes “spiritual” otherworldliness to earthly “worldliness” and thus leads to antinomianism and the rejection or neglect of the Dominion Mandate.

This study shows that the first generation Reformed Baptists kuyperians and theonomists were: John Spilsbury, William Kiffin, Hanserd Knollys, Daniel Axtell, John Carew, Thomas Patient, Samuel Richardson, Edward Cresset, John Tombes, William Steele, Paul Hobson, Thomas Gower, John Pendarves, John Vernon, William Allen, Christopher Blackwood, and Christopher Feake. All of these godly men were pastors or magistrates (often chaplains in the New Model Army).

The author humbly hopes that this studious scholarship may help clear away some of the present academic and popular confusion regarding Reformed Baptist orthodoxy and identity.