More than any other movement, Reconstruction is the intellectual arm of Dominion Theology. Offering articulate and intelligent arguments for the Church to establish theocratic rule by taking dominion over politics, economics, science, the arts, and every other expression of human social structure, Reconstruction attracts thinking people who see God's laws as the only answer to the present chaos. No right-thinking Christian would deny that this is true. However, unless Jesus is present to administer the affairs of that theocracy, human fallibility, no matter how well-intentioned, would ultimately result in religious totalitarianism.

Now, I'm one who believes that Christians should become involved in politics and in every other area of civic life in order to be a light to the world and salt to the earth. If we are to win souls and influence people for Christ, we cannot cloister ourselves from the world. But we are deluding ourselves if we think we can establish any man or religious group of men as saviors of the world.

Reconstruction's noble ideas of bringing about a transformation of society through which righteousness will be manifested are doomed to failure. But that does not mean we cannot use the information on politics and other fields of human endeavor that notable Reconstructionists provide. Their analyses of world affairs from a Scriptural perspective are often intelligent and well-documented, and can be of significant help to Christians who wish to be informed on current events. (Just beware the leaven.)

Nor does it mean we shouldn't continue to wage spiritual warfare and take authority wherever God grants it to us. But a theocracy administered without the benefit of Jesus' physical presence begs for subjective reasoning based on the intellectual whims of man's faulty wisdom.

Yes, the Holy Spirit can keep such a theocratic rule in line. But He won't if it exists apart from the will of God. And based on His Word, no such theocracy will be established by God without Jesus present. Should any such theocracy be established, it would not be a true theocracy, but a totalitarian state of man's own making. God's Word is clear that before Jesus returns tremendous evil will encompass the governments of the world (Matthew 24, Mark 14, Revelation 6 & 7). We might not like that prospect, but God's Word is without error. The question is whether Reconstruction seeks to impose the will of man in the name of God. This, I believe, is the direction in which Reconstruction, like all Dominion movements, is headed.