[11.] But what is this, “When He shall deliver up the kingdom?” The Scripture acknowledges two kingdoms of God, the one by appropriation (oikeiwsin), the other by creation. Thus, He is King over all, both Greeks and Jews and devils and His . . . Continue reading →
two kingdoms
Is It Sin To Vote For Trump Or How Understanding The Twofold Government Helps
Mark Galli, editor of Christianity Today has published an editorial calling for the removal from office of Donald Trump either by the Senate or at the ballot box. Of course this has provoked considerable reaction, not the least of which has been . . . Continue reading →
New Resource Page On The Twofold Kingdom
Arguably the one of the greatest challenges that the church has faced has been how to relate to the prevailing culture. This was true before Christendom, when Christians were mostly ignored. It was true when we were being actively persecuted and martyred . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 172: With D. G. Hart On American Catholic: The Politics Of Faith During The Cold War (Updated)
What can confessional Presbyterian and Reformed folk learn from the history of Roman Catholicism in America? Quite a lot as it turns out. We are continuing our brief hiatus from the series, As It Was In The Days of Noah to talk with . . . Continue reading →
Another Way The Reformed Confessions Can Help Us If We Let Them
I am in the studio today to work on an Office Hours podcast for May so there is just time for a quick thought about another way the Reformed confessions can help the churches be more faithful. Continue reading
Ursinus On The Two Kingdoms
IN WHAT DOES THE POWER OF THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN DIFFER FROM CIVIL POWER? The points of difference are many, and such as are apparent. 1. Ecclesiastical discipline is exercised by the church; civil power by the judge or . . . Continue reading →
Christian, Get Involved
One of the more pernicious misrepresentations of the distinction between the eternal and temporal spheres of Christ’s kingdom, which Calvin called the “twofold kingdom” (Institutes, 3.19.15), is that it counsels or leads Christians to withdraw from society (e.g., politics). Nothing could be . . . Continue reading →
Millennials And The Fallout Of Post-Political Evangelicalism
Young Evangelicals, we are told, leave the faith because Evangelicals have changed political and social behaviors. There is little evidence for that. What evidence that is offered—Trump’s supposed popularity—is more evidence of Evangelicals not changing their political habits than of them changing. . . . Continue reading →
What’s Going on Right Now? Sex, Race, Politics, & Power w/ Dr. W. Robert Godfrey (15)
Continuing his series, Dr. Godfrey analyzes in this episode the different options that Christians have for addressing the crumbling of Christendom. Aiming to identify a clear and helpful way forward for Christians and building on the series’ review of Abraham Kuyper’s ideologies, . . . Continue reading →
Godfrey Recaps His Christendom Series
Dr. W Robert Godfrey recaps his Sunday school series on “Christendom & the Struggles with Sex, Race, Politics, & Power” with Pastor Chris Gordon on Abounding Grace Radio, addressing the disorientation Americans feel about the state of society and culture and the . . . Continue reading →
A Word About R2K
Since David VanDrunen published, in 2010, the first volume in what has become a series of important volumes, Natural Law and the Two Kingdoms: A Study in the Development of Reformed Social Thought, Emory University Studies in Law and Religion (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010), there has been a certain degree of controversy in some quarters of the confessional Reformed world over the recovery of the “two kingdoms” as a way of thinking about Christ and culture and ethics. Continue reading →
Are Christian Nationalists The Same As Christians Invested In Their Nation?
Most of the literature on Christian nationalism is written by activists and journalists who clearly have axes to grind. The concept is ill-defined, often amounting to little more than the idea that Christians are bringing their faith into the public square to advocate for . . . Continue reading →
Found: One Lost Category
To follow up on the earlier essay on Christ and culture, I want to make a further observation about the importance of creation or nature as a category of thought. When many conservative Christians think of creation, the first thing they think . . . Continue reading →
D. G. Hart On The Temperature Of Christian Nationalism
Just like the PCR test in its take-home version, readers of these books can also take their own Christian nationalist temperature. (Forgive the use of the first-person singular, but I know no other way to report on my own responses.) Bottom line: . . . Continue reading →