Oct
24
2007
Frame on the Two-Kingdom Approach to Culture
Ok, I know I keep pointing to John Frame but the good doctor has something very thoughtful to say on just about everything.
I asked him to please comment on the two-kingdom approach to understanding Christ and culture that came up in the comment section of this blog a couple days ago. For those who may not be familiar with the “two-kingdom” approach, it is basically the idea that God exercises a “double sovereignty.” He has “two Kingdoms.” He rules one way in the church, and a different way in the world. In the words of Gene Veith, “In the church, God reigns through the work of Christ and the giving of the Holy Spirit, expressing his love and grace through the forgiveness of sins and the life of faith. In the world, God exercises his authority and providential control through natural laws (of physics, chemistry, etc.).”
According to Frame, “Veith also describes these two sovereignties or two kingdoms as Gospel vs. Law and spiritual vs. secular. Luther used the metaphor of the spiritual as God’s “right hand,” and the secular as God’s “left hand.”
Anyway, this was Dr. Frame’s response to me via e-mail regarding two-kingdom thinking (he gave me his permission, by the way, to post this):
This is basically a Lutheran concept, but it has been promoted in Reformed circles by followers of Meredith Kline, Mike Horton, and others. In H. Richard Niebuhr’s Christ and Culture, he distinguishes five views of the Christ/Culture relationship. The fourth of these is the Lutheran two-kingdoms view, the last the “transformationalist” view, that has roots in Calvin and has been the dominant Reformed position since Kuyper. Van Til, for example, was a passionate transformationalist.
I think we need to distinguish church/state from Christ/culture issues. The Bible does warrant a distinction between the sphere of the church and that of the state, though of course there are problems about how to formulate that precisely. On Christ and Culture, however, I think it’s important to emphasize the universal Lordship of Christ, both as controller and as authority. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The Bible doesn’t limit his Lordship to a narrowly “religious” sphere (nor does it even define what such a religious sphere might be). His purpose is not only to redeem the elect, but to remove the curse from the earth. No aspect of human life is exempt from his demands and his redemption (1 Cor. 10:31).
Interesting. “As iron sharpens iron.” Keep thinking everyone, keep thinking!