Faith columnist writes book about rule of Moses

Don't expect light reading from a local pastor's new book about Moses.

Gordan Runyan, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Tucumcari for the past 13 years and a faith columnist for the Quay County Sun, said readers probably will be "challenged" by the recently released "Radical Moses: The Amazing Civil Freedom Built into Ancient Israel" (self-published, 140 pages, e-book available).

Runyan said during a phone interview that his book, published in late August, explains the libertarian type of government Moses set up after guiding the Hebrews out of Egypt.

"He gave them the foundation of the structure of the nation was going to be based on individual self-control under the commandments of God," he explained.

"It's an extremely decentralized system. And that's why I think it'll be very challenging for Americans. But my conviction is that God created it as a system that he thought would work and should work. And so I'd just like to see us consider some of the principles that are contained there."

The book's description on Amazon provides more context.

"The Law of Moses created a radically free nation. So free, in fact, that modern 'liberty lovers' in the West would shy away from it as dangerous and unworkable. If one of these people were suddenly transported back to that situation in Israel, it would seem like the government had disappeared entirely," it states.

"Imagine a philosophy that framed a system in which you might go your entire life without ever having to deal with a government official. This is what God gave Israel through Moses. It was a system built on the concept of individual self-government under the commandments of God, with a judiciary that could handle flagrant violations."

Runyan said studying the Old Testament in the Bible long has been his interest. But he said many Christians hold "weak" knowledge of those books.

"I think this particular book, they're going to be challenged and and it may be even a little bit uncomfortable," Runyan said. "And that's fine. I kind of wrote it on purpose that way to be a little bit challenging and kind of encourage them to take a moment to investigate things further and and see what they think."

He said he's received little pushback from his book so far because most of his readers are familiar with his ideas.

"Somebody read it and was antagonistic toward the ideas, but everybody in my camp loves it," he said.

Runyan has about 16 publications available on his Amazon author page, ranging from books to short essays.

However, this was his first book in about 10 years, not counting the two fantasy novels he published last year under a pen name.

He attributed the lengthy break to "just kind of just kind of waiting for the inspiration to strike me. Sometimes you just get distracted or busy or even just frustrated."

A substantial number of biblical scholars say Moses was a mythical figure or that he was a real individual with myths assigned to him by the Bible's authors.

Runyan holds the more traditional view about Moses.

"In the Gospels, for instance, you see Jesus referring to him as a real person," he said. "That doesn't mean I'm a fundamentalist about it. I do recognize that there's some editorial work that happened with some of the first five books.

"But I'm enough of a conservative to believe that God wound up with the books that he wanted even if there were a couple of editors involved after Moses' death to finish out the story."